Christian Martyrs" (1883)
see your good works, and glorify your father in heaven,'(Matthew 5:16) in order that your life may conform with
your teachings, and your teachings reveal your life. After all, 'faith without works is dead,'(James 2:26) and
works without faith are dead. For even if we have sound teachings but fail in living, the teachings benefit us
nothing; likewise if we take pains with life but are careless about teaching, that will not be any good to us either.
So it is necessary to shore up this spiritual edifice of ours in both directions as Scripture says, 'everyone listening
to my words and acting on them will be likened to a wise man.' (Matthew 7:24) Notice how this person intends
not merely to listen but to act, and to demonstrate his listening by his actions; this is the one called wise, the one
giving evidence of deeds in wake of words, whereas the one who stopped short at words was called a fool. And
rightly so; after all, such a person built his house on sand, and so it could not withstand the onset of winds but
quickly collapsed."
St. John Chrysostom 4th. Century
Homilies on Genesis. Homily 2.