[On what young husbands should say to their wives:] I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.

After the death of Meletius John separated himself from the followers of Meletius without joining Paulinus the rival of Meletius for the bishopric of Antioch but after the death of Paulinus he was ordained a presbyter (that is a priest) in 386 by Evagrius the successor of Paulinus. He told visiting regional preachers to return to the churches they were meant to be serving—without any payout. There was also an earthquake the night of his arrest which Eudoxia took for a sign of God's anger prompting her to ask Arcadius for John's reinstatement.

The Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches honor him as a saint and count him among the Three Holy Hierarchs together with Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus. John Chrysostom (c. John is known in Christianity chiefly as a preacher theologian and liturgist.