Cultivating Obedience to God’s Word in Christian Education: A Pedagogical Reflection on Exodus 34:27 at SDN 101738 Diski

Abstract

Obedience to God’s Word constitutes a central objective of Christian Religious Education (CRE), particularly within pluralistic public-school contexts where biblical values must be communicated with pedagogical sensitivity and professional integrity. This study examines how pedagogical competence in Christian education contributes to cultivating students’ obedience to God’s Word through a theological reflection on Exodus 34:27, conducted at SDN 101738 Diski, a public elementary school with 123 Christian students and one Christian Religious Education teacher. Exodus 34:27 emphasizes divine instruction, covenantal responsibility, and faithful transmission of God’s commands, offering a foundational biblical framework for understanding obedience not merely as external compliance but as a formative spiritual practice rooted in relationship with God. Employing a qualitative research design, this study integrates exegetical analysis, a systematic literature review (SLR), and a simple semi-structured interview to bridge biblical theology and classroom praxis. The exegetical analysis explores the theological significance of obedience within the Mosaic covenant, while the SLR synthesizes recent scholarship on Christian pedagogy, teacher competence, and character formation. Interview data provide contextual insight into how pedagogical strategies are implemented in daily instruction. The findings indicate that pedagogical competence, encompassing mastery of biblical content, contextualized teaching methods, reflective learning strategies, and ethical modeling, plays a decisive role in enabling students to internalize obedience as a lived expression of faith. This study concludes that obedience to God’s Word can be effectively cultivated in Christian education when pedagogical competence is grounded in Scripture, responsive to students’ developmental contexts, and embodied through the teacher’s professional and spiritual integrity.