“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Romans 2:28, 29).
“Absurdity will be found to result – which is – in circulation with so many – that good comes of evil; that evil is the cause of good, and that one of the two is necessary…And himself meaning to show this too, he introduces the Greeks (gentiles) as the fathers of these opinions…Tell me what do you have to say to the Greek if you plunder and are covetous (yourself)?
Will you say, ‘Forsake idolatry, acknowledge God, and do not draw near to gold and silver?’ Will he not then make a joke of you and say, ‘Talk to yourself first that way!’…Now do not tell me that you do not worship an image of gold but make clear to me, that you also do not do things demanded of you by gold’.
For there are different kinds of idolatry: one holds mammon Lord, and another his belly his god, and a third baneful lust…You butcher your own soul (following these passions). [People follow with] greater obedience you do all that they (these passions) command you, whether it be your belly, or money, or the tyranny of lust. For this is just what makes gentiles [lost and unappealing to themselves and others]; that they made gods of our Bacchus…
I therefore exhort you to lay to heart the exceeding unseemliness of all this, and to flee from idolatry; for so Paul names all of it as covetousness. And flee not only covetousness in money but, the same desires of clothing, food, and everything else.
Reflection of St. John Chrysostom, Homily VI on Romans, Chapter 2 – from the 4th Century, AD.