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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 260: The Apostle Says in One Place, Be Ye Not Foolish, and in Another, Be Not Wise…

Each commandment has its own limit. For to “be ye not foolish” he adds “but understand what the will of God is”; and to “be not wise in your own conceits,”² fear the Lord and depart from all evil.”³ So he who does not understand the will of the Lord is foolish and every man is wise in his own conceits who uses his own thoughts and does not walk by faith in all the words of God. If then any man wishes to be neither foolish nor wise in his own conceits, he ought to understand the will of the Lord by faith in Him, and in the fear of the Lord to imitate the apostle who says: ‘Casting down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”⁴

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