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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 186: Since We are Taught to Have Such Love as to Lay Down Even Our Lives for Our…
It is reasonable to suppose that the affection which prompts such an action and the method of doing it would vary, for it often happens that what we have to accept on account of sinners is one thing and what we do on behalf of righteous men is something else. Howbeit we are taught to show love even unto death, on behalf both of righteous and sinners, making no distinction. For, it says, ‘“God commendeth his own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”1 And the apostle says to the Saints: “As when a nurse cherisheth her own children; even so, being affectionately desirous of you, we were well pleased to impart unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were become very dear unto us.”2
Notes
- Rom. v. 8 ὁ θεός before εἰς ἡμᾶς.
- 1 Thess. ii. 7 ἐάν for ἄν; 8 ἱμειρόμενοι for ὁμειρόμενοι.