How do we pay our debts with faith?

St. Basil the Great says we should believe that repentance enables sinners to receive forgiveness, and yet we hope to obtain forgiveness as a gift of faith ... not as something God owes us. There is a difference between those who seek forgiveness as a gift, and those who ask for it as a right ... you must pay your previous debts before you ask for what you want. Come as an honest debtor who settles the debts he truly owes with faith before requesting a new loan. For he who borrows from God finds it easier to fulfill his debt than if

53 St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, Volume I , trans. R. G. Macmullen (Oxford University Press, 1844) 1.5: p. 6, amended.

54 St. Cyril of Alexandria, A Commentary upon the Gospel According to St. Luke: Part II , trans. R. Payne Smith (Oxford University Press, 1859) Sermon 94: p. 437, amended.

55 St. Basil of Caesarea, Letter 235:11 to Amphilochius of Iconium (FOTC 28:161).

56 St. Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine 2.12(17) (NPNF I/2:540).

57 St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, Volume 2 , trans. R. G. Macmullen (Oxford University Press, 1845) 89.1: p. 645.

he borrows from a person. Because a person requires money as repayment, which is not always affordable for the one in debt. But God asks you to repay your debt with the innermost feelings of your heart, which you can always afford … prayer, fasting, and tears are the treasures of the faithful debtor, and they are more valuable than those who give money without faith.

And St. Ambrose says, “Ananias was poor, when after selling his land he brought the money to the apostles, and was not able with it to pay his debt, but involved himself the more (Acts 5:1–2). That widow was rich who cast her two small pieces into the treasury, of whom Christ said: ‘This poor widow has cast in more than they all (Luke 21:3).’ For God requires not money but faith. And I do not deny that sins may be diminished by liberal gifts to the poor, but only if faith commend what is spent. For what would the giving of one’s whole property benefit without charity? There are some who aim at the credit of generosity for pride alone, because they wish thereby to gain the good opinion of the multitude for leaving nothing to themselves; but whilst they are seeking rewards in this life, they are laying up none for the life to come, and having received their reward here they cannot hope for it there.”⁵⁸

And St. Clement of Alexandria says, “Repentance, then, is an effect of faith. For unless a man believes that to which he was addicted to be sin, he will not abandon it; and if he does not believe punishment to be impending over the transgressor, and salvation to be the portion of him who lives according to the commandments, he will not reform.”⁵⁹