Chrysostom stood at the end of a long line of Christian leaders in antiquity who had sought to lay down rules and guidelines about what it meant to be Christian, Jewish and Greek and so to construct Christian identity. Like these earlier Christian leaders, Chrysostom wanted to define clearly what it meant to be Christian to ensure that this was something that transformed individuals permanently. In the context of the late fourth century this meant preaching the message of Christian identity and Greek and Jewish difference to his large civic audiences at every possible opportunity. He continually exhorted these audiences to display their Christianity in visible and recognizable ways and in every aspect of their lives: being Christian should permeate everything they said and did and they should always work to distinguish themselves from adherents of other religions. Chrysostom's ideal was that this should lead Christians to have their primary social relations with other Christians in a distinct community based on Christian values, beliefs and texts. This Christian community was then supposed to encompass and replace all other social allegiances, whether cultural, civic or even, to some degree at least, political: being Christian was supposed to be all there was. If one did not accept this all-encompassing Christian identity, one was not only labelled as Greek or Jewish, but could also be considered demonic.

Libanius, in contrast, shows us a very different perspective on the situation.