Education Quote by Charles Stanley

Stanley’s line is a deliberate inversion of modern status math: the credentialed elite, for all their polish, can still be spiritually illiterate. He’s not merely praising piety over book-learning; he’s reassigning what counts as “far more.” In a culture where education is both a pathway to opportunity and a badge of moral seriousness, he insists that the decisive competence is interior attention to God, not mastery of institutions.

The word “unschooled” does quiet work here. It’s not anti-intellectual so much as anti-gatekeeping: you don’t need access, money, or the right syllabi to practice the kind of knowing he’s talking about. That’s classic evangelical populism with pastoral warmth: the kingdom is not a meritocracy of diplomas. At the same time, “highest education” is framed as a potential distraction, even a seduction into self-sufficiency. The subtext is a warning about pride dressed up as achievement, a critique that lands because it targets a socially protected idol.

Context matters. Stanley’s ministry grew in an America where higher education increasingly functioned as cultural sorting, while churches competed with secular expertise for authority over meaning. By centering “meditate upon the Lord,” he offers a counter-formation: a practice that trains desire and attention, not just intellect. It’s also strategic reassurance to congregants who may feel outclassed by professionals. He grants them a form of superiority that can’t be revoked by a résumé.

The line works because it’s both comfort and confrontation: comfort for the underestimated, confrontation for the overconfident.