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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 256: What is the Reward that These We Have Been Talking of Receive Equally with the…
To escape blame on account of the good things one has done, is, I suppose, the common privilege of all who obey. For to be crowned belongs properly to those who have contended in the good contest lawfully, have finished the course, and have kept the faith, in the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. Possibly the reward agreed upon is the same as the hundredfold which the Lord promised should be received in the present time by those who for His commandment have left everything they possess, so that ‘“take what is thine”’1 is said of this. Then those who were guilty of the sin of envy towards the men that received an equal reward will no more themselves inherit eternal life, but receiving now the hundredfold only will be condemned for envy in the time to come and will be told to “go.”
Notes
- Mt. xx. 147.