What is characteristic of a Christian?

By St. Basil the Great*

Moral Rule 80**

Chapter 22

What is characteristic of a Christian? Faith that works through love (Gal. 5:6).

What is characteristic of faith? Impartial confidence in the truth of the inspired words, which is not shaken by a thought arising from natural necessity, nor by apparent piety.

What is characteristic of the faithful? Living in this confidence by the power of the things said, without daring to take away or add anything. For if “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23), according to what the apostle says, “and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17), then everything outside the inspired Scriptures, being not of faith, is sin.

What is characteristic of love for God? Keeping His commandments, aiming at His glory.

What is characteristic of love for one’s neighbor? Not to seek one’s own, but that which is of both spiritual and physical benefit to the beloved.

What is characteristic of a Christian? That he is born from above through baptism with water and the Spirit.

What is characteristic of one born of water? That, just as Christ died for sin once for all, so he too is dead and invulnerable to all transgression, according to what is written: “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death; therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer be slaves to sin” (Rom. 6:3-4a, 6).

What is characteristic of one born of the Spirit? Let that which is born of him become according to the measure given to him, according to what is written, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

What is proper for one born from above? To put off the old man with his works and desires and to put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator (cf. Col. 3:9-10), according to what is said: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

What is proper for a Christian? The cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit by the blood of Christ and the performance of holy works with the fear of God and with the love of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1), and not to be without spot or blemish, or any such thing, but to be holy and blameless (Eph. 5:27), and thus to eat the body of Christ and drink the blood, “for he who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself” (1 Cor. 11:29).

What is characteristic of those who eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord? The constant preservation of the memory of Him who died for us and rose again.

What is characteristic of those who preserve this memory? That they live not for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them (2 Cor. 5:15).

What is characteristic of a Christian? To surpass in righteousness in all things the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20), according to the measure of the Lord’s teaching according to the Gospel.

What is characteristic of a Christian? Love for one another, as Christ loved us (Eph. 5:2).

What is characteristic of a Christian? To always see the Lord before him (Ps. 15:8).

What is characteristic of a Christian? To be vigilant every day and hour and to be constantly ready in the greatest perfection to please God, knowing that the Lord will come at an hour he does not expect (cf. Luke 12:40).

* Source: Patrologia Graeca 31, 868C-869C

** The Moral Rules (Regulae morales; Ἀρχή τῶν ἠθικῶν) are a work of St. Basil the Great, in which he fulfilled, to the best of his ability, a promise he had made to ascetics in the Pontic region: to gather in one place the prohibitions and obligations for those who live according to the commandments of God scattered here and there in the New Testament. These are spiritual instructions that are somewhat reminiscent of a convenient reference book to the New Testament texts. They contain eighty rules, with each rule divided into a different number of chapters. The last Rule 80 contains twenty-two chapters, which deal generally with what Christians should be like, as well as those to whom the preaching of the Gospel is entrusted. This rule ends with Chapter 22, which, however, stands differently from the others. Perhaps it should be seen as an epilogue to the entire Moral Rules. Of course, in it too, the saint remains true to himself, filling it with quotes and allusions to biblical texts.