Hearing and doing Christ's words builds on the rock
Cyprian is addressing the faithful, explaining how to escape the devil's snares by obeying Christ's commandments.
From this we have been given an example: to flee the way of the old man, to press on in the footsteps of Christ who conquers, so that we may not be caught off guard and fall back into the snare of death, but may be watchful in danger and, having received immortality, gain possession of it. How can we gain possession of immortality unless we keep the commandments of Christ, by which death is defeated and overcome? He himself warns and says, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17), and again, “If you do what I command you, I no longer call you servants but friends” (John 15:14-15). These are the ones he calls strong and steadfast, founded upon the rock with a solid mass, made firm with unmovable and unshaken stability against every storm and whirlwind of the world. “Whoever hears my words and does them,” he says, “I will compare to a wise man who built his house upon the rock. The rain fell, the rivers came, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded upon the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). We must therefore press on in his words, learning and doing whatever he both taught and did. Otherwise, how can someone say he believes in Christ if he does not do what Christ commanded him to do? Or how will he reach the reward of faith if he refuses to keep the faith of the commandment? He must waver and wander, carried off by the spirit of error like dust that the wind shakes loose and scatters, and he will make no progress toward salvation by walking, because he does not hold the truth of the saving way.
Latin
Ynde nobis exemplum datum est ueteris hominis uiam fugere, uestigiis Christi uincentis insistere, ne denuo incauti in mortis laqueum reuoluamur sed ad periculum prouidi accepta inmortalitate potiamur. inmortalitatem autem potiri quomodo possumus, nisi ea quibus mors expugnatur et uincitur Christi mandata seruemus ipso monente et dicente: si uis ad uitam uenire, serua mandata, et iterum: si feceritis quod mando nobis, iam non dico uos seruos sed amicos. hos denique fortes dicit et stabiles, hos super petram robusta mole fundatos, hos contra omnes tempestates et turbines saeculi inmobili et inconcussa firmitate solidatos. qui audit, inquit, uerba mea et facit ea, similabo eum uiro sapienti, qui aedificauit domum suam super petram. descendit pluuia, aduenerunt flumina, uenerunt uenti et inpegerunt in domum illam: et non cecidit. fundata enim fuit super petram. uerbis igitur eius insistere, quaecumque et docuit et fecit discere et facere debemus. ceterum credere se in Christo quomodo dicit, qui non facit quod Christus facere praecepit? aut unde perueniet ad praemium fidei qui fidem non uult seruare mandati? nutet necesse est et uagetur et spiritu erroris abreptus uelut puluis quem uentus excutit uentiletur nec ambulando proficiet ad salutem qui salutaris uiae non tenet ueritatem.