1 Thessalonians 4:9

It is through grace that we not only discover what ought to be done but also that we do what we have discovered. That is, not only that we believe what ought to be loved but also that we love what we have believed. If this grace is to be called "teaching," let it at any rate be called "teaching" in such a manner that God may be believed to infuse it, along with an ineffable sweetness, more deeply and more internally. This teaching, therefore, would be not only by their agency who plant and water from without but likewise by God also who ministers in secret his own increase. All this is in such a way that God not only exhibits truth but likewise imparts love.… Thus the apostle speaks to the Thessalonians, "As touching love of the brothers, you have no need that I write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another."

Salvation, accordingly, is the following of Christ: "For that which is in Him is life." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My words, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into condemnation, but hath passed from death to life." Thus believing alone, and regeneration, is perfection in life; for God is never weak. For as His will is work, and this is named the world; so also His counsel is the salvation of men, and this has been called the church. He knows, therefore, whom He has called, and whom He has saved; and at one and the same time He called and saved them. "For ye are," says the apostle, "taught of God." It is not then allowable to think of what is taught by Him as imperfect; and what is learned from Him is the eternal salvation of the eternal Saviour, to whom be thanks for ever and ever. Amen.

The blessed apostle, like a true and spiritual physician, either seeing this disease which springs from the spirit of lethargy already creeping in, or foreseeing through the Holy Spirit that it would arise among monks, is quick to anticipate it by the healing medicines of his directions. For when he writes to the Thessalonians, he first sounds like a skillful and excellent physician, applying the soothing and gentle remedy of his words to the sickness of his patients. He begins with charity … that this deadly wound, having been treated with a milder remedy, might cease its angry festering and more easily bear severer treatment. He writes, "But concerning brotherly charity you have no need that I write to you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For this you do toward all the brothers in the whole of Macedonia." He first began with the soothing application of praise and made their ears submissive and ready for the remedy of the healing words.… At last with difficulty he breaks out into that at which he was driving before. He gave the first aim. "Take pains to be quiet." Then Paul adds a second: "Mind your own business." And a third as well: "Work with your own hands, as we commanded you." … [The upshot is] that one who does not dutifully and peacefully work for his daily food with his own hands is sure to view enviously another's gifts and blessings. You see what conditions, serious and shameful, may spring solely from the malady of leisure.