Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"That good thing which was committed unto thee keep,"—how?—"by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." For it is not in the power of a human soul, when instructed with things so great, to be sufficient for the keeping of them. And why? Because there are many robbers, and thick darkness, and the devil still at hand to plot against us; and we know not what is the hour, what the occasion for him to set upon us. How then, he means, shall we be sufficient for the keeping of them? …
Homilies On 2 Timothy 3 ↗
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
But someone, perhaps, will say, "I did indeed receive faith, but it is I who have guarded and kept it." You perhaps say this, whoever you are, listening to all this and having no sense: "I received faith, but it is I who have guarded and kept it." It is not what our Paul says, "It is I who have guarded and kept it." He had his eyes, you see, on [the words] "unless the Lord keeps watch over the city, he labors in vain who guards it." Labor, by all means, guard it; but it is good for you that you are being guarded. …
Sermon 297:7 ↗
Jerome
And someone may say, as Epicurus and Aristippus and the Cyrenaics do, and the rest of the beasts called philosophers. But reflecting carefully within myself, I find that not, as some mistakenly believe, everything is done by chance, and that fortune plays a varied role in human affairs, but rather that everything is done by the judgment of God. For even if a swift runner were to think that he determines his own course with his feet, he does not. …
Commentary on Ecclesiastes ↗