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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 60: If a Man Has Already Decided to Do Something Displeasing to God, is It Better…
The apostle says: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as of ourselves ’1; and the Lord Himself confesses, ‘I can do nothing of myself.”2? And again: ‘“The words that I say to you I speak not of myself”3; and elsewhere He says: “I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of the Father that sent me.”4 So it seems such a man ought to repent. First, because he dares to form a decision of himself, whatever it be—for not even good things ought he to do on his own responsibility; secondly, and this is more important, because he did not fear to decide contrary to what pleases God. But that he ought to reverse such a previous decision formed contrary to the command of the Lord is shown clearly by the case of the apostle Peter, who decided beforehand—“Thou shalt never wash my feet,” but when he heard the Lord’s declaration: “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me,” immediately changed his mind and said: “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”5
Notes
- 2 Cor. iii. 5.
- Jn. v. 19¶.
- Jn. xiv. 10 λαλῶ for λέγω K.
- Jn. vi. 38 ἐκ for ἀπό K, add πατρός after με.
- Jn. xiii. 8; 9.