Energetic Character

“* Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” — Puit. ii. 12-13.

THERE is certainly nothing passive, nothing indolent in the religious life of the Apostle Paul. His stillness is not laziness, neither is it the quiescence of a log. It is rather the stillness of the central depths of mighty seas. There is a profound inner calm at the ocean’s heart, but the calmness is associated with movement, even tidal movement, and the onrushing strength of the breaking wave. And energy is one of the most impressive and startling characteristics of the Apostle Paul. He is like his Master, and virtue is always going out of him. And virtue is always going out of him because it is always being born in him. The stream flows on because the spring is never dry.

Look at the great passage which I have quoted from the letter to the Philippians. Three times is energy named. The entire passage pulsates with energy. There is energy in expression because there is energy in reception. Energy is worked out because it is first worked in. ‘‘ Work out your own salvation. for it is God which worketh in you.” It suggests to me the analogy of a diver working away at the bottom of the sea; he gives out energy because the life-breath is conveyed to him by friendly allies who are working on the surface of the waters above him. In a very vital sense the diver is being constantly born from above. And so it was with the Apostle Paul. His life abounded in energy because he drew his breath in the fear of the Lord. If one may reverently say it, human endeavour was made possible because of the divine travail. He was a fellow-labourer with God.

And so the energy of the great Apostle was one of the living witnesses to the faith which wasinhim. The energy was manifold. There was the energy of love. He radiated it everywhere. But the love was a really vital energy. It was not like the soft, languorous air of Lotus-land which inclines to sleep, but it was like the tonic air of the Alps which stirs to athletic effort and mountaineering. Yes, Paul’s love-energy was quickening mountain air, and it moved the hearts of men to chivalrous tasks. And then, again, it was the energy of heroism. It displayed itself in great and splendid ventures, and in fearless journeys down new roads of thought and service. Paul waxed valiant in fight. And there was the energy of joy. There are many kinds of joy which lessen our stature. We shrink in such delights. They relax our fibre and reduce our moral height. But the joy of Paul was energy which made mountains sink to molehills. He rose above his tasks, for ‘‘ the joy of the Lord was his strength.”

Such are three forms of energy expressed in the life of the Apostle Paul. Love and joy and heroism abounded in every service all along the road. The energy was poured out because it was first poured in. Paul was in communion with the central dynamic. His life was hid with Christ in God.