Acts 22:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But you will say, “We bear witness and believe.” How? Why then do we do the opposite? Tell me: if someone called himself a Christian, but after denying the faith thought in a Jewish manner, would his testimony be sufficient? No, for testimony from deeds would be sought.

So it is with us. When we say there is a resurrection and countless good things, yet neglect them and prefer the goods here, who will believe us? All attend not to what we say, but to what we do.

“You shall be,” Ananias says, “a witness before all men,” not only before your own, but also before unbelievers. For the work of witnesses is to convince not only those who know, but also those who do not know.

Let us then be trustworthy witnesses. And how can we become trustworthy? By our life. The Jews attacked Paul. The passions attack us, urging us to deny our testimony. Let us not submit to them. We are witnesses sent by God.

Some people think of God as though He were not God. God has sent us to bear witness concerning Him. Let us then bear witness and persuade those who think this way. If we do not bear witness, we ourselves will be guilty of their error.

If, in a tribunal where worldly matters are examined, a witness filled with many crimes is not accepted, much less will such a witness be accepted here, where the matters are so exalted.

We say that we have heard Christ and believe His promises. But they will say, “Show this by your deeds.” Your life, on the contrary, bears witness that you do not believe.

Do you wish us to examine those who care for profits, seize what belongs to others, give themselves to greed, weep, lament, and busy themselves with every affair? They build houses as though they were not going to die.

If you do not believe that you will die, a matter so well known and obvious, how shall we believe your testimony? Indeed, there are many people who conduct themselves as though they were not going to die.

In extreme old age they begin building and farming. When will they think of death? No small punishment will overtake us, who have been called to bear witness, yet cannot bear witness to what we have seen.

We too have seen angels, and more clearly than those who saw them with bodily eyes. Let us bear witness to Christ. The apostles are not the only witnesses; we also are witnesses.

They are called witnesses because, when compelled to deny, they endured everything for the confession of the truth. So we also, when the passions urge us to deny, must not submit to them.

Gold says, “Say that Christ is not the Christ.” But do not listen to it as you ought to listen to God. Despise its commands. Evil desires say the same, but do not heed them. Stand against them courageously.

Then it will not be said of us, “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him” (Tit 1:16). This is no longer proper to witnesses, but the opposite.

It is no marvel if others deny. But if we, who have been chosen to bear witness, begin to deny, this is grievous and unbearable. This can most of all destroy us.

“This will turn out for you as a testimony,” Christ says (Lk 21:13), but only when we do not fall away, and when we stand firm.

If all of us bore witness to Christ, we would soon bring many Greeks to understanding. Life is a great thing, beloved. However coarse a man may be, even if he will not openly agree with the teaching, he will incline toward you, praise you, and marvel.

And how, you ask, can one attain an excellent life? In no other way than by the power of God. What then, when Greeks are such? If they are such, some are so by nature, and others from vainglory.

Do you wish to know how important life is, and what power of persuasion it contains? Many heretics, though they held the most corrupt teaching, had such power that many people, out of reverence for their life, did not even examine their doctrine.

Others, while condemning their doctrine, nevertheless respected them for their life. This is not good, but so it was. This is what weakens the importance of our faith. This is what overturns everything: that no one thinks at all about life.

This brings dishonor upon the faith. We say that Christ is God, and we set forth many other doctrines. Among them we also say that He commanded all to live righteously. But in practice this is found in few.

A wicked life dishonors the doctrines of the resurrection, the immortality of the soul, and the judgment. It also receives many contrary things: fate, necessity, and unbelief in Providence.

The soul sunk in many vices tries to invent consolations of this kind for itself. It does this so that it may not grieve at the thought that there is a judgment, and that recompense for good and evil awaits us.

Such a life produces countless evils. It makes men into beasts, and even more senseless than beasts. What exists separately in each kind of beast, it often combines in one man, and it overturns everything.

For this reason the devil introduced fate. For this reason he suggested that the world exists without Providence. For this reason he proposed that beings are good or evil by nature, and that evil is beginningless and material.

For this reason he does everything, that he may corrupt our life. Whoever is such in life cannot renounce corrupt teaching, nor remain in sound faith. Rather, under great necessity, he accepts all these things.

I do not think it possible to find even one man living wickedly who does not hold some one of the many satanic thoughts: that fate exists, that everything happens by chance, and that all is arranged without order or reason.

Therefore I exhort you: let us care for a virtuous life, lest we receive evil doctrine. Cain, as punishment, had to groan and tremble (Gen 4:12).

Such are all wicked men who are conscious of many evils in themselves. They often wake from sleep with troubled thoughts and disturbed eyes. Everything arouses suspicion in them. Everything terrifies them.

Their soul is filled with a heavy foreboding and fear. It is troubled and wastes away from dread and terror. Nothing can be weaker, nothing more senseless, than such a soul.

As the possessed cannot govern themselves, so such a soul does not govern itself. How can it come to its senses when it has fallen into such darkness?

Yet if it loved quiet and stillness, it could come to know its own nobility. But when everything disturbs and frightens it, both dreams and words, both real events and suspicions, how can it come to self-knowledge in such restless disorder?

Let us then cast off this fear and break these bonds. Even if there were no future punishment, is it not worse than any punishment to be always in fear, never to have boldness, and never to feel consolation?

Remembering all this, let us faithfully preserve peace and care for virtue. Then, having sound doctrine and an upright way of life, we may pass through the present life without stumbling.

May we be counted worthy of the good things promised to those who love Him, by the grace and love for mankind of His Only-begotten Son. With Him be glory, dominion, and honor to the Father, together with His Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Ananias, however, may not have said this to him, but expressed the thought more simply: "The God of our fathers has chosen you beforehand." This expression was both more intelligible and stronger for his hearers. According to Saint John Chrysostom, "The Apostle said well, 'of our fathers.' By this he expressed that they are not Jews, but strangers to the law, and act from envy, not from zeal. 'You have known,' he says, 'His will; you have seen the Righteous One.' Therefore such was His will. If He is righteous, then they are guilty. See how he presents this event as exalted: 'because you will be His witness.' Therefore do not betray your sight and hearing, what you have seen and heard. He confirms him through both senses. Here he expressed something great. He did not say, 'Be baptized in His name,' but, 'calling upon the name of Christ.' By this he showed that Christ is God, for one must call upon no one except God. Truly Paul proved to be a witness both in deeds and in words. We too ought to be such witnesses and not betray what we believe. I mean not only dogmas, but also life."