1) The document discusses Paul the Apostle's pursuit of happiness through accepting Jesus Christ, having faith, and developing community within faith. 2) Paul was originally named Saul and persecuted early Christians, but had a vision of Jesus which led to his conversion to Christianity. 3) Paul believed that in order to find true happiness one must accept Jesus, have faith in God even when things are difficult to see, and surround oneself with a community of fellow believers.

1. Bradley Ternes
ENG 102
Mr. Phillips
2/1/11
Achieving Happiness
Aristotle describes happiness as “the most self-sufficient of all goods” (Aquinas 41).
From the beginning of time, people have believed the reason we live is to be happy. Happiness
is a gift we all strive for; however, it is not given, it is something that must be pursued. The
Apostle Paul pursued happiness throughout his life. He believed that one who is trying to find
true happiness, must accept Jesus Christ, have faith, and develop community within faith.
Paul was not always a leader. In 10 A.D., Paul was born with the name of Saul in a little
town called Tarsus. At age 14, he was sent to Jerusalem to train to be a rabbi. Saul grew in to a
man that had a fiery temper and a man that stood by his beliefs. He was born in to the religion of
Judaism, so this is what he believed in. After the death of Jesus, a religion known as Christianity
quickly spread, causing this religion to become the heresy to Judaism. Many people did not
agree with Christianity and began to persecute itsbelievers. Saul encouraged the persecutors
violent acts that destroyed the first of the martyrs. He participated in going house to house and
taking anyone to jail who was a believer in Christianity, eventually this led to Saul gaining a
nasty reputation. He continued to breathe out murderous threats against the followers of
Christianity(Rayment). In Acts chapter 9:1-19, Saul’s conversion is explained. Saul was on a
mission to Damascus where he persisted on persecuting followers of Christ. On his journey, he
had a vision with Jesus. In this vision, Jesus asked Saul, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
(New International Version, Acts 9:4). Saul is struck blind, and is assisted into the city by his
companions. In a vision, Jesus says to Ananias, “This man in my chosen instrument to carry my
name before the Gentiles… I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15-

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16). Ananias heals Saul of his blindness, and after Saul is healed he is baptized and receives
God’s Holy Spirit. Saul is a chosen disciple from God himself, the journey will bring much
hardship and suffering, but the ultimate goal is to find true happiness found through God. On his
first missionary journey Saul uses the name Paul, thus becoming the Apostle Paul.
In order to find true happiness through God, Paul believedone must accept Jesus into his
or her heart. Paul did this after his vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus, and his life was
forever changed. We find in Paul’s writings where he says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He tells the reader
that when accepting Christ you become a new person. Paul explains that through Jesus you can
find many things, “… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). After this new life has begun, a
person will learn to leave the unpromising life of sin for the new exuberant life with Christ, thus
starting their quest for the true happiness.
In Paul’s mind, he was chosen by God to preach about Christianity. Paul was a very
courageous man, because he was giving sermons to people who he once persecuted. Not only
that, but the Romans were out to kill him because they felt like he had betrayed his Roman
citizenship. He was teaching people of this culture a new model of happiness, one that some did
not agree with.John Knox says in Chapters in a Life of Paul, “The fact that Paul was loved and
hated tells us a lot about the character of the man” (Knox 79). Teaching people a concept they
do not agree with, takes a man of great faith. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he writes, “We
live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). It takes great faith to follow Christ, buteven
greater faith to teach people about Christ.From the previous verse we can conclude that we must
walk by faith in order to seek God. Paul follows up on this by saying, “we fix our eyes not on

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what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”
(2 Corinthians 4:18). External goods are things that can be seen; therefore, they are not
necessary. Faith is unseen, causing it to last forever; it is something that is always there,
regardless of race, ethnicity, wealth or social status. In the first sentence Paul explains that the
human population tends to fix our eyes on what is seen, the external goods, rather than seek the
unseen.“If you seek by sight, then you are lacking the vision of the divine essence”, (Aquinas 47)
which is our ultimate goal, reaching eternity with God.
Paul tells us that in order to seek God, we must have friendships that can help us. The
great Aristotle tells us, “the happy man needs friends…so that he may do good to them and
delight in seeing them do good and be helped by them in doing his own good deeds” (Aquinas
52).Aristotle basically says that we need friends to help lead us. The Christian life is life within
the community, and through community nothing will separate you from God (Knox 118). Paul
says the same thing as Aristotle in his letter to the Romans, “Be devoted to one another in
brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). Paul agrees in saying
that we need friends that will lead us to seek our happiness in God. Not only that, but he
explains that we should think more highly of our friends even more than ourselves. Paul does
not just say we need friends, he says that we need friends that are of faith. In Paul’s letter to the
Galatians, we read, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to
those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10). Friends are your structure to
many things you do; therefore, they are essential to your quest for the divine.
Paul was a very tough and intense man who was passionate about his writings and his
preaching. We can see this passion by the way he overcame adversity. He was stoned and
thrown out of many cities, but he still continued to preach about Christianity. Paul’s vision was

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for everyone to hear about Christianity and the man named Jesus. John Knox agrees by saying,
“His moods of happiness seem dependent upon the security and growth of his churches and upon
their love for Him” (Knox 85). We can understand this directly from Paul when he writes, “But
the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully
proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (2 Timothy 4:22).Paul wanted people to
understand that through hearing and accepting the Gospel, one may understand the life they need
to be living. He says this in his epistle Titus, “Our people must learn to devote themselves to
doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive
lives” (Titus 3:14). These two verses show us exactly the vision Paul had for living his life.
Paul accomplished his vision, and he succeeded in happiness according to his own model
throughout his life. The when and how of Paul’s death in uncertain, but it is thought that Paul
was imprisoned and beheaded around 67 A.D. (Lashway). Paul was “a man in Christ”, but some
believed he was “the man in Christ.” There is no one on record that has or had a devotion to
Christ like the way Paul did. He was “Christ’s slave” and his whole life was bounded by his love
for Christ. He interpreted the meaning of theChristian religion in a different way, a true and
creative way. He fully understood what it meant to be a disciple of Christ and spread Christ’s
word. “As apostle he carried the gospel across half the ancient world, and almost single-handed,
laid the foundations of Gentile Christianity” (Knox 131). One of Paul’s final writings, he writes,
“… and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the
race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Paul’s model of happiness was a life with Christ
and a quest for the divine. Through Paul’s discipleship he fought the fight, he finished the race,
he kept the faith, and he triumphed in finding true happiness.