Divine Energy and Human Effort in Christian Labor

"Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working" (Colossians 4:29). The work of Christ in us and for us does not exempt us from work. The Holy Spirit's operation does not supersede human effort—it excites it.

The Christian life is always described as energetic: a journey, a race, a boxing match. Scripture offers no illustration suggesting heaven is won by sloth; idleness is everywhere condemned. When the Holy Spirit awakens the sinner, he cries, "What must I do to be saved?" He perceives the excellence of salvation and desires the margarites (pearl) of great price at all costs. Having found Christ, the believer moves at once to glorify Him with all his powers.

Consider the bronze figures in the Square of St. Mark at Venice, which strike the hours by mechanical compulsion. Nobody thanks them for their diligence—they possess no will, no mind, no heart giving consent. No moral good or evil attaches to their action. Yet if grace reduced men to such passivity, we would become mere machines, stripped of moral agency and accountability.

Faith is God's gift, yet the Holy Ghost never believed for anybody. Repentance is His work, yet the sinner must repent. He helps our infirmities in prayer, yet we must pray. Moral goodness requires our active participation—not passive machinery, but willing hearts working kata (according to) His divine energy.