The Good Life
Galatians 5:1-15; 10/18/2026; IOUC/BCBC; Brother Mike Lei
Peace brothers and sisters. My message today is “The Good Life”. We will be look at Galatians 5:1-15. Let’s pray before we start.
In the book “Battle For the American Mind” the authors talked about how teaching and education molded the minds of the child from an early age. The Greek word “paideia” means “education” or “learning”. They wrote: “Paideia, simply defined, represents the deeply seated affections, thinking, viewpoints, and virtues embedded in children at a young age, or, more simply, the rearing, molding, and education of a child.” “Paideia,” (P.44) From an early age, a person’s “vision” of “what is a good life” is driven by this learning or education. This forms the “vision of the good life” in children. The authors wrote: “The Western vision of “the good life” went virtually unchanged and unchallenged for centuries. It was tied to traditional families, church, communities, industriousness, and a virtuous population.” (P.45) Would you agree with this as you think about the classical American dream? Maybe it is to have a happy family, to be respectable in the community, to have a standard of living as well or above those around you, and live in a society where people are good? Do you know what is the Asian vision of the good life? I saw this in a training for International Student Inc. staff. I was there not because I’m International Student Inc. staff, but because it was a free training day for volunteers. The teacher said these are the pursuit of the good life for East Asians: 1) Quiet, low conflict 2) Materially sufficient 3) Connected, honored, relationally right. To young people here, do you see these in the Chinese culture that you grow up in? Maybe you will say I don’t see low conflict in my family. Haha. That is because this applies to those outside of the family.
What would you say is the American dream today? What would you say people are pursuing when you look at social media today? The authors wrote: “Today, our modern vision of the good life has been nearly universally transformed into the freedom of personal choice, control of your identity, being accepted for who you are, finding adventure, and creating your own path in life.” (P.45-46) Would you agree that today’s young people would desire these things – such as freedom of personal choice, control of your identity, being accepted for who you are, finding adventure, and creating your own path in life?
Then, what is the vision of the Good Life that God wants us to have? Jesus came to give us abundant life. John 10:10 says: “10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ” The NLT translation of John 10:10b says: 10 My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. That is the vision of the Good Life that we should pursue – the rich and satisfying life from God. Today, we will be looking at these 3 points about the Good Life:
1) The freedom in the Good Life (vs. 1-6)
2) The costs in the Good Life (vs. 7-12)
3) The fruits in the Good Life (vs. 13-15)
The freedom in the Good Life
5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Jesus went to the cross to secure our freedom. He has set us free to live in freedom. When you think of freedom, what do you think of? Is it the freedom to whatever you want to do? For example: freedom to not have to go to school or work, freedom to not have to obey certain rules, freedom from having to deal with certain people, or freedom from worrying about money? Warren Buffett, one of the richest men on the planet, once said: “Money has no utility to me. Time has utility to me.” In other words, Money has no use to him, but only time is useful to him now. In 2016 interview, he said he already done everything on his bucket list. “Money in terms of making trips or owning more houses or having a boat or something — it has no utility to me whatsoever.” Doesn’t this sound like Solomon in Ecclesiastes after he had achieved everything he ever wanted? Ecclesiastes 傳道書 2:11 “11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. ” Solomon certainly enjoyed a lot of freedom as the king and being the most powerful person in that region. Yet, it did not satisfy him. What can truly satisfy us? Who can truly satisfy us?
Christ sets us free from the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1), but not according to what we want to do. What is the yoke of slavery? It is the righteous demands of the law and the penalty of not meeting the righteous demands of the law. If the Galatians want to achieve righteousness by obeying the law, then they wouldn’t need Christ. They would be trying to be justified themselves. They would have fallen away from God’s grace. However, our hope of righteousness is by faith in Christ, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Then, Paul tells us what our freedom is really about – faith working through love (Galatians 5:6). I remember as a young Christian being really touched by these words – “faith expressing itself through love” (words from NIV). I realized that my life of faith is not just to believe in Christ and go to church activities, but to live out a life of love. This gave me the direction for my life, that whatever I do from now on, it will be done by faith expressing itself through love. My faith in Christ would be expressed through loving God and loving others. This is the freedom in the Good Life – the ability to live out a life full of faith expressing itself through love. We can live in this freedom by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit.
The cost of the Good Life
7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!
In high school, I was on the track team. This is nothing to boast about, because I was in the C league. What is the C league? It’s the league below varsity and junior varsity. Actually, when we went to the city tournament, (me and my best friend who were both on the team) found out our weight and height disqualified us from the C league. I remember always playing it safe when I run hurdles and so I would at best get a safe second or third place, but never first place. One time, I was so close to the front runner and almost caught up to him at the end. Right before the last hurdle, I heard my coach cheering me on and yelling out my name. I think I was trying too hard to impress my coach and jumped too early. Guess what happened? I tripped on the last hurdle, fell, sliding to the finish, ended up last, scraping my legs pretty badly. That was the closest I ever got to first place in hurdles.
Here in Galatians 5:7 Paul is saying the Galatians were running well. What does it mean that they were running well? From the way they welcomed Paul and eagerly received the gospel, showing sacrificial love. They were running well in the race of eternal life with Christ. What is hindering their race now? Was it because they were trying to please their coach and took too much of risk? Actually, they were listening to the wrong coach. They were listening to these false teachers telling them to be justified by the law, so they can avoid persecution. As Paul says in 5:11: 11 “But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. ” The world will applaud those who seek to justify themselves by the law or in other words – by works, but will be against those who say there’s no way we can save ourselves, that our only hope is in Christ. The message of the cross is offensive, unless the Holy Spirit opens their hearts. No one will persecute us for giving money to the poor or the homeless, but we will face opposition if we try to say Jesus is the only way to heaven. As Christians, we should do charity work, but that should not be the only thing we do.
If we want to live the Good life in Christ, we can’t be afraid of persecution. If we are afraid of persecution, then we would be missing out on a lot of things Christ wants us to enjoy doing – making Him known, making disciples of all nations, teaching people to obey everything He says. In Mark 10, Peter saw a young rich man not willing to give up his riches to follow Jesus, so he said to Jesus, “we have left everything and followed you. ” This is the cost of the Good Life – to leave everything to follow Jesus. Following Jesus means we would have leave behind all other goals to make Jesus the goal of our life. So, what did Jesus say to Peter in return? Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” I think we all like what Jesus said, up until he slips in “with persecutions”. Jesus is saying that persecution will come along with all the good things we will gain in the Good Life with Him. According to opendoors.org, more than 388 million (3.88 yi) Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith. Number 1 in persecution is North Korea. Number 2 is Somalia. Number 3 is Yemen. (Especially in northern areas controlled by Houthis, an armed rebel movement)
While I was preparing this message, I met a Uber driver from Yemen on a trip from San Jose airport. So I was really interested to talk with him. He said the Uber drivers in Bay Area are mostly Chinese and Yemenis. However, he is the first Uber driver I’ve met from Yemen. He told me that the capital of Yemen, Sanaa is one of the oldest cities in the world and founded by one of the sons of Adam. I didn’t know who he was referring to because he said the name is “Sam”. I was thinking there’s no “Sam” mentioned in Genesis. Later, I looked up on internet and found that according to legend Sanaa was founded by Shem, one of the 3 sons of Noah. I asked him if he knows he will go to heaven. He says he has to follow all the teachings to deserve to go to heaven. This opened up the opportunity for me to say that Christians can go to heaven not because we deserve it but because of what Jesus did for us on the cross to die for our sins.
Let’s pray for our brothers and sisters in these countries to be strong in faith in the midst of persecutions. Pray that they will hold on to the vision of the Good Life, a life with freedom and satisfaction in Christ, but a life with persecutions as well.
The fruits in the Good Life
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
I remember my dad, who attend a Christian University would quote his school motto about service – “Freely ye received, freely give. ” (Matthew 10:8) We serve because Jesus came to serve. Jesus said in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” This verse is quoted in Matthew 20:28. Jesus lived the most free life for us to follow, that is in obedience to the Father. Therefore, let us live freely, not holding tightly to our life, willing to give it away to serve others. For parents, isn’t this what you are called to do? You are called to give up your life, your wants and desires, to raise up your children in the ways of the Lord. You have to die to your impatience, your temper, and your pride to do this. I want to make it clear that our value is not from what we do, but from who we are. You are valuable because you are created in the image of God and dearly loved by God.
Vs. 15 says: 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. This is a picture of wild beasts attacking and devouring each other. This reminds me of the hyenas in the movie Lion King. Do you remember them from the movie? The hyenas would only attack the lion cub Simba, but feared and got a beating from Simba’s father Mufasa the Lion King when he saw them. What would make Christians do such a thing like biting and devouring one another? Aren’t we supposed to love one another? Well, why would siblings fight each other? Aren’t they supposed to love each other? It’s interesting that Paul says, “watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” We know the one who really wants to devour Christians, that is the devil. So, if we fight each other, then we are just doing the work of the devil. He sits back and let us do his work for him. How can we prevent fights among Christians? How can we prevent fight among siblings? My mom would tell me that the reason my brother and I don’t fight when we were young is because she is always telling me how much my brother loves me and how we should love each other. She would say, see look at what your brother did, he really loves you. I think I don’t fight with my brother is because he always let me have my way. Haha.
In his commentary on Galatians, the theologian Jerome, who lived in the 4th century told the story of the Apostle John. When John was old and unable to walk, his disciples would carry him to the gathering of believers on the Lord’s Day. Every week he would say these words to the congregation: “Little children, love one another.” He said this week after week and finally his disciples asked him, “Master, why do you always say this?” John replied, “Because it is the Lord’s command and if this only is done, it is enough.” https://www.jesuswalk.com/123john/stories-about-st-john.htm https://michaelpahl.com/2017/05/08/love-is-enough/
Remember Jesus said 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. ” (John 13:35) So, we need to be constantly reminded to love one another. Use your freedom to love each other. Amen?
Let me end with this warning from the “Battle For the American Mind” “If we do not change the way we live now, our children will be sacrificed in this fire—not through the violence of a pagan ritual, but as they walk mesmerized toward a false vision of the good life that is absorbed from the vapid culture around them.” (P.46) Brothers and sisters, let us be renewed in our minds from all the false visions of the good life. Let’s align our vision of the Good Life to the true Good Life from God. A life of freedom to express our faith in Christ through love and serving others. Amen? Let’s pray.
