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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 264: When the Apostle Says, That Ye Be Sincere, and Again, But as of Sincerity, What…

By sincerity I reckon to be meant that which has no admixture of anything else, is absolutely pure from everything contrary to it, is compact and firmly set towards godliness alone. And not only so, but towards all those things that are the object of careful endeavour at every time and in every concern with a view of attaining godliness, so that the man who is set on some thing is not led away even to what is closely linked with his good aims. The first is made clear by the context, for to ‘but as of sincerity he adds “as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.” The second is shown by the words: “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man the measure of faith,”³ and by what comes after this.

Notes

Phil. i. 10†.
2 Cor. ii. 17†.
Rom. xii. 3.