Daily Inspiration Quote by John Chrysostom

Chrysostom isn’t flattering “reason” here so much as prosecuting complacency. The line turns thinking into a moral muscle: not a decorative gift, not a parlor trick, but the basic equipment required to dodge sin. In late antiquity, where fate, demons, and social habit could easily be offered up as excuses, he plants agency squarely in the mind. If you can think, you can choose; if you can choose, you’re responsible. That’s the trapdoor under the listener’s feet.

The phrasing also reveals a pastor’s strategy. He doesn’t say men have the power of purity, or even of obedience. He says they have the power of thinking. Sin, in this view, isn’t only a failure of willpower; it’s a failure of attention and judgment. Chrysostom is pushing his audience toward vigilance: anticipate temptation, interrogate impulses, rehearse consequences. The moral life becomes less about dramatic conversions and more about mental habits repeated daily.

Subtextually, it’s an argument against spiritual outsourcing. You can’t blame the body, the crowd, or the devil if you’ve been granted the capacity to reflect. It’s also a subtle defense of preaching itself: if thinking helps you avoid sin, then words, counsel, and instruction matter because they shape thought. Coming from a clergyman famed for blunt homilies and public moral critique, the quote doubles as both consolation and warning: you already have what you need to resist, which means you’re out of alibis.