ACC ~ Galatians 5 v6b

FAITH WORKS THROUGH LOVE. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Everywhere he says that faith in the gospel of Christ accords no value to rank or sex or works done with regard to the body or from the body or for the sake of the body, such as circumcision, works and other things of this kind. None of these, he says, has saving value in Christ. Circumcision is therefore vain, nor by uncircumcision do we gain value in Christ. Because we have conceived faith in him and because we have believed his promises and because through his resurrection we too rise and have suffered all things with him and rise to life with him but also through him, our faith is sure. Through this faith comes works fitting to salvation. This comes about through the love that we have for Christ and God and thus toward every human being. For it is these two relationships above all that set life straight and fulfill the whole sense of the law. They contain all the commands in the Decalogue—if it follows necessarily that he who keeps faith will also keep love, since these two fulfill all the precepts of the law of Christ. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5.6.

NO DRIFT TOWARD BONDAGE. CHRYSOSTOM: He strikes them here with a great blow by showing that it is their failure to be rooted in love for Christ that has given entrance to this error. For what is looked for is not only faith but also faith abiding in love. It is as though he said, “Had you loved Christ as you ought, you would not have gone voluntarily into slavery, you would not have insulted your deliverer.” And here he also alludes obliquely to those who have plotted against them, showing that if they had love for them they would not have dared to do this. He also wishes to amend their lives through this saying. HOMILY ON GALATIANS 5.7.

THE FAITH THAT WORKS THROUGH LOVE DISTINGUISHED FROM THE FAITH OF DEMONS. AUGUSTINE: This is the faith that separates the righteous from the unclean demons, for they too, as the apostle James says, “believe and tremble,”but their actions are not good. Therefore they do not have that faith by which “the righteous live.” ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 18.

LOVING FAITH IS EFFICACIOUS AND GUILTLESS. FULGENTIUS: If anyone, holding the faith that works through love, repents of his former sin in such as a way that he from then on turns his back on it, he will be guiltless of the blasphemy that is spoken against the Holy Spirit [namely, impenitence], which is not forgiven to the speaker either in this age or in the one to come. ON THE REMISSION OF SINS 1.24.1.

Gal