Ven. Pelagia the Penitent; Saint Thaïs the Repentant Harlot (4th c.); Phillip, Bishop of Gortyna

But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.

²⁵But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need, ²⁶since he longed for you all, and was very troubled because you had heard that he was sick. ²⁷For indeed he was sick nearly to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow. ²⁸I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful. ²⁹Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such people in honor, ³⁰because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and don’t do the things which I say? ⁴⁷Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words and does them, I will show you who he is like. ⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock. ⁴⁹But he who hears and doesn’t do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.”

¹After he had finished speaking in the hearing of the people, he entered into Capernaum.