Lessons:

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #1
The Good and Beautiful Life

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #2
The Gospel You May Not Have Heard

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #3
The Grand Invitation

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #4
Anger

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #5
Lust   

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #6
Honesty

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #7
Bless Those Who Curse You

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #8
Learning to Live Without Vainglory

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #9
Learning to Live Without Avarice

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #10
Learning to Live Without Worry

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #11
Learning to Live Without Judging

The Good and Beautiful Life, Lesson #12
Living in the Kingdom

John Wooden became a Christian at a young age and built his life around Jesus’ teachings. Jesus’ narrative goes like this: “The good and beautiful life is created by doing the things I commanded, not as laws or rules, but as a new way of life.” Jesus states this narrative at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. Later, we will examine that sermon very carefully, but I want to begin by looking at how Jesus ends his teaching. After giving the most profound sermon the world has ever heard, Jesus says,

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall! (Matthew 7:24–27)

All who take Jesus’ words to heart and arrange their lives around them will be like a person who builds a house on a rock, never to be shaken, even in the storms and floods.

In contrast, those who refuse to listen and obey build their house on sand. When the storms of life come, they can be sure that their house will collapse. What words is Jesus referring to when he says “hears these words and acts on them”? The Sermon on the Mount. He is talking about his command not to be ruled by anger or lust or deception. Not retaliating or worrying, and not judging people. Strangely, many Christians simply ignore these teachings, seeing them as too hard or perhaps not necessary for the ordinary person.

This book is built around the Sermon on the Mount. The aim is to help Christians understand and implement the teachings of Jesus about things like anger, lust, lying, worrying, pride and judging others. What Jesus teaches about these things is simply the truth. Living according to his teachings leads to a good life, a life that can withstand the storms and trials we all face. Disobeying his teachings leads to a life of ruin. Jesus is not making life more difficult but is revealing that the way to the good and beautiful life is to obey his teachings. There is no other way. Either our lives conform to his teachings, or we fail to live a good and beautiful life.

James Bryan Smith, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ, The Apprentice Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2009), 15–16.

Check out our Bible Study on The Good and Beautiful Life by James Bryan Smith.

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