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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 232: If a Man Injured by Some One Tells No Man from a Motive of Long-suffering and…

The Lord said in one place: Forgive if ye have aught against any ’¹; and in another place: “If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word shall be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the Church; and if he refuse to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.”² So a man ought to show the fruit of longsuffering, offering to God prayer out of a good disposition on behalf of him that did the wrong and saying:³ Lord, lay not the sin to his charge,” lest being angry with his brother he become liable to the judgment. But it is right that one should render exhortation and rebuke to him that has done the wrong, to free him also from the wrath that cometh upon the sons of disobedience. But if he neglect to do so under the pretext of his own long-suffering, he sins doubly in that he himself transgresses the commandment which says: ‘Thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour and not accept sin on his account,”⁴ and by his silence becomes an accomplice of the sinner, and a man who might be benefited perhaps by his rebukes, as indeed the Lord commanded, is left to perish in his evil.

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