English · KJV

Basil of Caesarea

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 690 passages across 52 books

Commentary

681–690 of 690
Romans 13:3

For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

It is right to submit to higher authority whenever a command of God is not violated thereby.

THE MORALS 79.1

Romans 14:15

But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

The Christian must serve everyone who is upset with him in every way, at least insofar as he can.

THE MORALS 5.3

Romans 14:23

And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

If “all that is not of faith is sin, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” then everything outside holy Scripture, not being of faith, is sin.

THE MORALS 80.22

Song of Solomon 2:5

Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

What reflection is sweeter than the thought of the magnificence of God? What desire of the soul is so poignant and so intolerably keen as that desire implanted by God in a soul purified from all vice and affirming with sincerity, “I languish with love.” Totally ineffable and indescribable are the lightning flashes of divine Beauty.

THE LONG RULES 2

Song of Solomon 5:2-5

I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

According to the counsel of the apostle, the zealous person can do all things for the glory of God, so that every act and every word and every work has in it power of praise. Whether the just person eats or drinks, he does all for the glory of God. The heart of such a one watches when he is sleeping, according to him who said in the Song of Solomon: “I sleep, and my heart watches.” For on many occasions the visions seen during sleep are images of our thoughts by day.

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 16:1 (PSALM 33)

Titus 2:13

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Therefore, the common Director of our lives, the great Teacher, the Spirit of truth, wisely and cleverly set forth the rewards, in order that, rising above the present labors, we might press on in spirit to the enjoyment of eternal blessings. “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly.” What is most truly good, therefore, is principally and primarily the most blessed. And that is God. So Paul also, when about to make mention of Christ, said: “according to the manifestation of our blessed God and Savior Jesus Christ.” For, truly blessed is Goodness itself toward which all things look, which all things desire, an unchangeable nature, lordly dignity, calm existence; a happy way of life, in which there is no alteration, which no change touches; a flowing fount, abundant grace, inexhaustible treasure.

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 10.3

Titus 3:4

But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

Every kind of help comes to our souls through Christ. Various appropriate titles have been devised for each particular kind of care. When he presents a blameless soul to himself, a soul which like a pure virgin has neither spot nor wrinkle, he is called Bridegroom. But when he receives someone paralyzed by the devil’s evil strokes and heals the heavy burden of his sins, he is called Physician. Because he cares for us, will this make us think less of him? Or will we not be struck with amazement at our Savior’s mighty power and love for mankind, who patiently endured to suffer our infirmities with us and condescended to our weakness? No heaven, or earth, or the great oceans, or all creatures living in the waters and on dry land, or plants, stars, air, or seasons or the vast expanse of the universe can illustrate the surpassing greatness of God’s might so well as he has himself. The infinite God, remaining changeless, assumed flesh and fought with death, freeing us from suffering by his own suffering!

ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.18

Titus 3:10

A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

If he who has been corrected for his first sins and has been deemed worthy of pardon again falls, he prepares for himself a more wrathful judgment. He who after the first and second admonition remains in his fault should be reported to the superior, that perhaps he may be ashamed when further rebuked. But, if he does not even in this case correct himself, he must be cut off from the rest as a cause of scandal and be looked upon as a heathen and a publican.

LETTERS 22

Zechariah 6:12

And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:

Therefore God helps the city, producing in it early morning by his own rising and coming. “Behold a man,” it is said, “the Orient is his name.” For those upon whom the spiritual light will rise, when the darkness that comes from ignorance and wickedness is destroyed, early morning will be at hand. Since, then, light has come into the world in order that he who walks about in it may not stumble, his help is able to cause the early morning. Or perhaps, since the resurrection was in the dim morning twilight, God will help the city in the morning early, who on the third day, early on the morning of the resurrection gained the victory through death.

HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 45:18.5

Zechariah 10:1

Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

Let us not, therefore, know God by halves or make his lovingkindness an excuse for our indolence; for this, his thunders, for this, his lightnings—that his goodness may not be held in despite. He who causes the sun to rise also strikes people with blindness. He who sends the rain also causes the rain of fire. By the one he manifests his goodness; by the other, his severity. For the one let us love him, for the other let us fear, that it may not be said also to us, “Or despise you the riches of his goodness and patience and longsuffering? Know you not that the mercy of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath.”

THE LONG RULES, PREFACE

All writers