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Longer Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 32: How We Should Behave Towards Relations According to the Flesh

Those who have been once received into the brotherhood must not be allowed by the Superior to be led away by any distraction: they must not leave the brethren and lead a life free from observation, under pretext of visiting relations, nor must they be permitted to have the anxieties of looking after their kinsmen according to the flesh. For the Scripture absolutely forbids the words “mine” and “thine” to be used in the brotherhood. “For” it says “all that believed had one heart and soul; and not one of them said that aught of the things he possessed was his own.”¹ So let a man’s parents or brothers according to the flesh, if they live in godly fashion, be cared for by all the brethren,² as fathers or friends of all. “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,” saith the Lord, “he is my brother and sister and mother.”³ The care of such we judge should devolve upon the Superior of the brotherhood. But if our relations are involved in the life of the world, we who are resolved to live a godly life waiting on the Lord without distraction have nothing in common with them. For besides the fact that we confer no benefit on them, we fill our own life with tumults and disturbances and bring upon ourselves occasions of sinning. It follows moreover that we must not receive those who despise the commandments of God and set at nought the work of godliness even when they come to visit their former friends; for they love not the Lord Who said: “He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words.”⁴ “And what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?”⁵

It is most necessary to take pains in every way to remove from those who are still practising virtues, occasions of sinning, the greatest of which is the memory of their former life; lest the Scripture experience should be theirs— they turned in their hearts towards Egypt⁶ —which generally happens when there is constant conversation with relations according to the flesh. But generally speaking we must not permit either relative or stranger to converse with the brethren unless we are persuaded in regard to them, that they frame their discourse with a view to the edifying and perfecting of souls. But if it be necessary to speak to those who have been once admitted let it be left to those who have been entrusted with the gift of utterance, since they have power to speak with knowledge and to hear in a way that builds up faith.⁷ For the apostle plainly teaches that not all have the power of speech, but that the gift belongs to but few, when he says: For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,”⁸ and elsewhere: “that he may be able to exhort with sound knowledge, and to convict the gainsayers.”⁹

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