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Longer Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

4. Rule 4: Concerning the Fear of God (R. 2)

To those who are just being introduced to piety, instruction through fear is more profitable, according to the advice of Solomon, wisest of men, who said: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”1 But you, who have passed the stage of infancy in Christ, and no longer need milk but are able to be perfected in the inner man by the solid food of teachings,2 require the more important commandments, in which the whole truth of the love in Christ is perfected; taking care, needless to say, lest the abundance of God’s gifts become a cause to you of heavier condemnation, if you show an ungrateful disposition towards your Benefactor. For, He says, “to whom they have committed much, of him will they ask the more.”3

Notes

  1. Prov. i. 7 Κυρίου with AC, Sw.’s (B) text θεοῦ.
  2. See Heb. v. 12.
  3. Lk. xii. 48 ἀπαιτήσουσιν for αἰτήσουσιν.

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