Ephesians 2:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“For good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” This means that constant virtue is required of us, continuing to the last hour of life.

If we undertook a journey to the royal capital, completed the greater part of it, and then suddenly grew lazy and stopped before finishing the road, such a journey would bring us no benefit.

In exactly the same way, “the hope of the calling” cannot bring any benefit to us who share in this hope, unless we walk worthily of the One who called us.

We, who have been called to good works, must also abide in them until we complete them all. Surely we were not called in order to perform one good work, but to perform all.

Just as we have five senses and must use all of them properly, so we must practice all the virtues. If someone is chaste but not merciful, or merciful but covetous, all is in vain for him.

The same is true if he does not take what belongs to another, yet does not distribute his own. A single virtue will not give us the right to stand with boldness before the throne of Christ.

For this, many virtues are needed, varied and diverse, or rather, all the virtues. Listen to what Christ said to His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19).

And in another place: “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5:19), that is, in the resurrection.

This means that such a person will not enter the Kingdom, because He customarily calls the time of the resurrection the Kingdom. “Whoever therefore breaks,” He says, “one of the commandments shall be called least.”

Consequently, we must keep all the commandments. See: without mercy one cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We shall depart into the fire if we lack even this one virtue.

“Depart from Me,” the Savior will say, “you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41). Why, and for what reason? “For I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink” (Mt 25:42).

Do you see that He accuses them of nothing else? They perish for this one thing alone, the absence of mercy.

The foolish virgins also were cast out of the bridal chamber for this one thing alone (Mt 25:12). Though they had chastity, they lacked mercy, and therefore were not admitted into the bridal chamber.

“Strive for peace with all men, and for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). Remember, then, that without chastity one cannot see the Lord, though this is not always possible even with chastity.

Something else may hinder it. But you will say: we have fulfilled everything, only we did not help our neighbor. Will we really not enter the Kingdom for this alone?

Where is this shown? In the parable of the servants to whom the talents were entrusted. They fulfilled all the virtues and omitted none. But because one was lazy and did not care to increase what was given, he was justly cast out.

There is also an indication that men will be cast into Gehenna for reviling alone. It is written: “Whoever says to his brother, ‘You fool,’ shall be liable to the Gehenna of fire” (Mt 5:22).

Let someone have kept all the commandments, but be abusive. Such a person will not enter the Kingdom of God. And let no one accuse God of harshness because He deprives such sinners of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Even among men, if someone commits something unlawful, he is no longer admitted into the king’s presence, even if he has transgressed only one statute.

For example, if he pronounces an unjust judgment against someone in court, he loses his authority. If he commits fornication and is caught in the act, he is dishonored. Though he has done a thousand lawful things, he perishes.

If he commits murder and is convicted of it, that one thing is fully enough to subject him to severe punishment. If human laws are guarded so strictly, how much more should the laws of God be guarded?

But you say: God is good. O how long shall we speak these senseless words? By senseless I do not mean that we believe in God’s goodness. I mean that we permit ourselves to abuse this faith, though we have spoken against this thousands of times.

Listen to what is said in Scripture: “Do not say, ‘His mercy is great; He will forgive the multitude of my sins’” (Sir 5:6). Scripture does not forbid us to say that His mercy is great. Not at all.

It does not urge this prohibition. On the contrary, it counsels us to speak of this continually. Paul also directs all his words toward this.

But as is clear from what follows, Scripture rebukes those who marvel at God’s love for mankind in order to sin and say: “His mercy is great; He will forgive the multitude of my sins.”

We too speak often and much about goodness, not so that we may hope in it and do whatever we wish. In that case goodness would become the cause of the loss of our salvation.

We speak this way so that we may not despair in our sins, but may bring repentance. “Does the goodness of God lead you to repentance?” (Rom 2:4), not to greater persistence in evil.

If you remain evil because of goodness, then through this you slander it before men. I see many who slander God’s longsuffering in this way. You will give account because you used grace improperly.

God loves mankind, but He is also just. He forgives sins, but He renders to each according to his works. He overlooks unrighteousness and removes iniquities, but He also brings judgment.

Do these things contradict each other? Not at all, if only we pay attention to the times. He removes iniquities here, both through the laver of baptism and through repentance. There He will punish all iniquities with fire and torments.

Perhaps after this you will say: if even for a small evil, even for one sin, I shall be cast out and deprived of the Kingdom, why should I not commit every kind of evil?

These words are the words of an imprudent servant. Nevertheless, let us examine them. Do not do evil if you wish to save yourself.

All of us, if we do evil, will alike be deprived of the Kingdom. But we shall not all suffer the same punishment in Gehenna. Some will suffer more, and others less.

If you or someone else has despised God’s commandments, and one has despised more commandments while another has despised fewer, both of you will equally not enter the Kingdom.

But if you did not despise them equally, and one despised more while the other despised less, then in Gehenna also you will feel a difference.

What does this mean, you ask? Why such threats against those who did not show mercy? Why are they sent into fire, and not simply into fire, but “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”?

For what reason, and why? Because nothing so offends God as an injury done to friends. We must love even our enemies. Therefore what punishment will not be deserved by one who turns away from those who love him?

Such a person proves worse than the Gentiles themselves. Therefore, according to the gravity of the sin, he must justly depart into Gehenna with the devil.

Woe, it is said, to him who does not give alms. If this was so in the Old Covenant, then much more is it so in the New. If, where it was permitted to acquire, enjoy, and care for earthly things, such attention was paid to helping the poor, how much more here?

Here we are commanded to leave everything. Indeed, what did the Israelites not do? They gave tithes. Then they provided other tithes for the support of orphans, widows, and proselytes.

Someone said to me with wonder: such and such a man gives tithes. How can we not be ashamed? We Christians marvel at what was not marvelous among the Jews.

Then it was dangerous not to distribute tithes. Imagine, then, how much more dangerous it is now. Drunkenness also will not inherit the Kingdom.

But what does the greater part of people usually say? They say: If he and I are to suffer one and the same thing together, this is no small consolation.

What shall we say to this? First of all, it must be said that you and he will not bear the same punishment. Moreover, there is no consolation in this at all.

Equality of suffering can be a consolation only when the miseries do not yet exceed measure. But when they exceed measure and cast us into terror, then no comparison of our woes with those of others brings consolation.

Indeed, tell a man condemned to burning, when he is already standing in the fire, that someone else is suffering the same. You will give him no consolation whatever.

Did not all the Israelites perish together? Yet what consolation did this bring them? On the contrary, did it not grieve them more? For this reason they cried out: We are lost, slain, and destroyed.

Is there any consolation in this? In vain, then, do we comfort ourselves with such hopes. There is only one consolation: not to fall into that unquenchable fire.

Once someone has fallen into it, he can receive no consolation there. There is gnashing of teeth, weeping, the worm that does not sleep, and the fire that is not quenched.

Besides, when you are in such grief and anguish, will you be capable of understanding any consolation? Will there remain in you even the least presence of mind?

I ask and implore you: let us not deceive ourselves in vain. Let us not comfort ourselves with such arguments. Let us do what can save us.

It is set before you to sit with Christ, and yet you give yourself to such contentious reasoning. If there were no other sin, then for these words alone what punishment should we undergo?

We are so negligent, so lazy, so careless, that we speak such words when such great honor is offered to us.

O how bitterly you will groan when you hear that those who lived piously are being called with honor into the Kingdom of God. You will see servants and people of low origin reclining in the Kingdom of glory.

These are people who cared for little here, yet there will share in the royal throne. Will such a sight not be worse than any punishment?

Even now, when you see someone flourishing, though you yourself suffer no harm, you consider this worse than any punishment. From this alone you are disturbed, suffer, weep, and think it worth a thousand deaths.

Tell me, then, what will you have to endure then? Let there be no Gehenna. Can the thought of the Kingdom alone, from which you are deprived while others enjoy it, not strike you and utterly crush you?

That it will truly be so can be sufficiently confirmed for you by life and experience. Therefore let us cease to comfort ourselves vainly with such reasonings.

Let us rather be attentive and zealous for our salvation. Let us be eager for virtue and stir ourselves to the doing of good works, that we may be counted worthy of such high honor in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is what he indicates by the word "walk." For God appointed this beforehand; therefore one must not turn aside from this work appointed by God. He says "for good works," not for one work, but for all. If there is a deficiency in one, virtue is impaired.

Gregory the Theologian, however, understood the expression "created for good works" not as creation in baptism, but referred it to the first creation.

He says: "For we are His workmanship." That is, the fact that we live, breathe, think, and can believe belongs to Him, because He is our Creator.

Observe carefully that the Apostle did not say, "We are His depiction," figuratio, or "His formation like a molded form," plasmatio, but, "We are His workmanship." The formation of a molded form signifies origin from liquid earth. Workmanship signifies a beginning according to the image and likeness of God.

This is also indicated in the one hundred eighteenth Psalm by the juxtaposition of different actions: "Your hands have made and fashioned me" (Ps 118:73). The first place belongs to creation, and afterward formation is accomplished.

Since the names of creation and construction are always joined with great acts, for example, "that city was founded," or "this world was created in the beginning," and since each of the saints, by the variety of doctrine and virtues within himself, is a whole world, therefore we too are now called created in Christ.

We have been created for good works, either those we ourselves have performed, or those we are to perform, or in other creatures to whom our conversion must be directed. Thus we may walk in what God has prepared, giving us great hope while we walk in what God has wondrously prepared.

Since we have come near the term creature, and since Wisdom in the Proverbs of Solomon says that She was created at the beginning of the ways of God, many, in order not to be forced to call Christ a creature, deny the whole mystery of Christ. They say that this wisdom does not indicate Christ, but the wisdom of the world.

We freely declare that there is no danger in calling Him a creature whom, with full confidence in the fulfillment of our hope, we confess also as a worm, and a man, and crucified, and a curse. We say this especially freely because, in the two preceding verses, this Wisdom promises to speak of what will be after the passing of the ages.

Yet since Christ created the ages, and what is said afterward is what He had already promised to say in the future, this later saying must be referred not to the nature of the Godhead, but to the Incarnation. This is especially so because in the Hebrew copies the words are not, "The Lord created Me as the beginning of His ways," but, "The Lord possessed Me."

There is a great difference between possessing and creating. What is possessed certainly exists, offers resistance, and has qualities by which it is under power. But what is created is either something that did not exist before it came into being, or else something is transferred to another from one who existed before.

Thus we too are now called created by Jesus Christ. We are not created in the sense that we did not exist before, but we are created in good works for good works. Therefore David also cries out in prayer in the fiftieth Psalm: "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Ps 50:12).

Yet it is beyond doubt that even before his sin he had a clean heart, when God says of him: "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart" (Acts 13:22). But as creation is used here in the sense of restoration, so also creaturehood and creation in Christ may be understood according to particular deeds and progress in them.

That is, Christ is created, born, and established daily in believers, because according to their various merits they are called mountains and valleys, hills and plains.

"God made man upright," according to Ecclesiastes, "but men have gone after many devices" (Eccl 7:29). For "we are His workmanship," says the Apostle, "created for good works" (Eph 2:10).

The Creator, being Himself good, created us also for good works. Yet the creature, by its own free choice, turned toward evil.

Thus sin, as has been said, is a terrible evil, but it is not incurable. It is terrible for the one who has it, but entirely curable in the one who casts it away through repentance.

Since God not only created us in the beginning capable of virtue, but also re-created us by the grace of holy Baptism when we had grown weak through sin, and strengthened us by the gift of the All-Holy Spirit for the doing of good works, praise for virtue belongs to Him, not to us.

"Which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Here is a third reason. Through prophetic preaching and Gospel teaching, God taught and showed what good works are. Through many holy examples He prepared the path of virtue beforehand.

Therefore glory, honor, and hymnody for good works belong to Him, not to us.

Thus St. John Chrysostom says: "Lest the greatness of the benefactions puff you up, see how he humbles you, saying, 'By grace you have been saved.' Yet lest he destroy your own participation. He adds what is required from us: 'through faith.' Then again he almost cancels this free participation of ours when he says, 'and this is not of yourselves.' Faith too, he teaches, is not of yourselves. If Jesus Christ had not come, if He had not called us, how could we have believed? As it is said, 'How shall they believe, if they have not heard?' (cf. Rom 10:14). Thus, according to the Apostle's teaching, faith is not our possession, but the gift of God. Faith is insufficient for salvation. Yet, so as not to save us without any participation of ours, God requires it from us. Faith saves, but not by itself. It saves through God. God wills, and faith saves."

"The Apostle does not call faith the gift of God. Rather, to be saved by faith, this is the gift of God."

"But lest, on hearing that our salvation is accomplished not by works but by faith, you become careless, see what the Apostle says next: 'For we are His workmanship, created for good works.' Mark this well: the same Apostle preaches this. Here he hints at our re-creation. Indeed, our salvation is a second creation. By the former creation we were called to life. By this one we were created capable of a good life. From us now is required constant virtue, until the last hour of life. We must keep all the commandments."

For this reason the Apostle joins this statement to the preceding one with “for,” showing in this too the reason why he regards the glorification of believers as a manifestation of the riches of grace.

For faith and good works, the two conditions for admission into the Kingdom of glory, are both from grace. Blessed Theodoret writes: “The Apostle said here, ‘created,’ meaning regeneration.

That is, God called us according to His ineffable goodness. We obeyed, and, having believed, we received salvation. But just as before baptism He did not require active virtue from us, so after baptism He commands us to care for it.

For this is what the words mean: ‘for good works, that we should walk in them.’”

“For we are His workmanship.” As in the beginning God breathed His breath into the body formed from dust, and man became man, so now He breathes the Spirit of grace into us, who have become earthbound through passions and lusts.

We had become inhuman. But after the call to faith, He breathes the Spirit of grace into us, and we become human again. Without spirit, man is not man.

After the fall, however, the spirit is crushed by passions, lusts, and every kind of sin. The Spirit of grace descends, gives life to man’s spirit, and man is again man. Yet now he has another name: a Christian man, as one anointed by the Spirit of grace.

“Created in Christ Jesus,” that is, through faith in Christ Jesus, according to the gracious divine economy of salvation established by the Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone is in Christ, he alone is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

This is accomplished in baptism. In its laver the oldness is buried, and in its place the renewal of life is received, so that one may walk in it radiantly, as the risen Lord is radiant (Rom 6).

The baptized man puts on Christ. As, according to the word of the Lord, without Him no one can do anything truly good, so also, having put Him on, he cannot fail to do good.

“For good works.” As leaves, blossom, and fruit testify to the life of a tree, so doing good testifies to being made alive in Christ. Holiness and every virtue are the character of those newly born or newly created, the spirit of their life.

The Christian bears the obligation to this in his conscience and is zealous to be faithful to it. Grace descends through the mysteries. But its receptacle in the soul is readiness for every good work.

In baptism this readiness is expressed by renouncing Satan and all his works, and by being united to Christ. In repentance it is expressed by the vow to sin no more.

The grace that descends in the mystery makes this readiness strong and fruitful. Therefore the one faithful to his calling and vow grows rich in good works.

The labors of ascetic struggle stand in inseparable connection with this, according to the law that one obliged to an end is also obliged to the necessary means.

For the man filled with grace, holiness is consciously held as the norm of life. But grace, having come, dwells in the heart and drives sin out from there. Yet it does not at once drive sin out of man’s whole nature.

Sin remains there as a tempter, acting from without in relation to the heart. It is driven out by struggle against it, freely undertaken, though with the help and under the guidance of grace.

Where there is struggle, there are also ascetic labors of every kind. These include self-discipline for restraining the rise of sin as temptation, and the strengthening of good as its antidote.

This is why those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal 5:24). Ascetic struggle is inseparable from Christianity. The whole order of the Church is permeated by its laws.

All this is so because Christians are created only for good works.

“Which God prepared beforehand.” How did He prepare the works? He marked them out beforehand for us believers according to the idea of the new life.

He also established the means for receiving strength to perform them. With these means He clothes all who approach the Lord by faith and are sanctified by the holy mysteries. This preparation is from God, not from us.

“That we should walk in them.” Through being filled with grace, or through regeneration, an obligation is laid upon us to be constant in good. New birth and the indwelling of grace are given so that we may walk in good works, and only in good works.

But are we the ones who walk? Grace is in us, and without grace we can do nothing good. Yet we are still the ones who walk in good.

The instrument is given, but we ourselves must act with it. Arrows and a bow are given, but they will not shoot at the enemy by themselves. You must take them, make yourself ready as you should, and shoot.

In faith, consent to faith and the desire to believe are required, so that grace may imprint living faith in the heart.

Likewise, in doing good, the intention of good is required, and this too is inspired by grace. Consent to do it is required, together with the desire to do it, with fitting personal effort and a cry for help.

Then grace, coming to aid us, helps us carry out in deed the good that was conceived and resolved. It helps us do it blamelessly, overcoming every obstacle from without and within.

This is the law both for each particular deed and for the whole entirety of life. Therefore, for a Christian, becoming rich in good works is an essential matter.

There are systems of doctrine in which good works are placed in the shadows, and ascetic struggle is altogether excluded. This is all from fear of introducing some merit into the work of salvation.

But is it really impossible to direct all one’s effort toward both without any thought of merit, but rather from the consciousness of obligation?

Those who have lived among such people know by experience how much this teaching weakens moral powers and virtue. They know how it diverts people from inward purity toward outward good conduct.

Orderly behavior there takes the place of moral goodness. All inward impurity, in their opinion, is supposedly covered by faith. What is to be done, they say? “I see another law...” And they renounce all resistance to it.

It is said that their first leader, Luther, often uttered his wise saying: sin more, but believe more, and do not doubt that you will be saved.

Yet he did not explain how it is possible to have faith while serving the passions, when the beginning of faith demands that we deny ourselves and take up the cross.

Let us listen to what Chrysostom says on this passage.

“Lest, hearing that our salvation is accomplished not of works but by faith, you remain careless, see what the Apostle says next: ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.’

Notice that the same Apostle proclaims this, the very one who had just spoken before this about salvation through faith. Here he hints at re-creation. Indeed, our salvation is a second creation.

Through redemption we have truly been brought from non-being into being. In the state in which we formerly were, the state of the old man, we were dead. Now we have become what we were not before.

Therefore the work of our regeneration truly is creation, and a creation far more excellent than the first. By that creation we were called into life. By this one we were created capable of the good life.

‘For good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,’ means that constant virtue is required of us, continuing without interruption to the last hour of life.

If we undertook a journey to the royal capital, completed the greater part of it, and then suddenly grew lazy and stopped before finishing the road, would this journey bring us any benefit?

In exactly the same way, what benefit will the hope of the calling bring us, who share in this hope, if we do not walk worthily of the One who called us?

We, who have been called to good works, must also abide in them until we complete all good ascetic labors. Surely we were not called to perform one good work, but always to be virtuous.

Just as we must use all five senses properly, so also we must practice all the virtues. If someone is chaste but not merciful, or merciful but covetous, everything is in vain for him.

The same is true if he does not take another’s property, yet does not distribute his own. A single virtue does not give us the right to stand with boldness before the throne of Christ.

For this, many virtues are needed, varied virtues, virtues of every kind, or rather, all the virtues. Listen to what Christ said to His disciples: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’ (Mt 28:19-20).

And in another place: ‘Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments... shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven’ (Mt 5:19). This means that we must keep all the commandments.”