Skip to main content

Broken Heroes: The Life and Ministry of Basil of Caesarea

We first posted this devotional in early December, but since it’s part one of three I thought it best to repost it this week and then post parts two and three in the coming weeks. With that, here is a brief description of the life and ministry of Basil.

Basil of Caesarea (ca. 330-379) was a fourth-century scholar, bishop, and leader who, along with several other prominent figures, shaped the life and thinking of the church for many generations. His father was a well-to-do lawyer but more importantly a passionate follower of Jesus. His mother was the daughter of a well-known Christian martyr, and thus her love for Jesus was neither theoretical nor superficial. She knew what it meant to suffer for the sake of Christ, and along with her husband, taught her many children to take up their cross in the cause of Christ. Basil’s family was wealthy, but more so, they were wealthy toward Christ.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Basil was well educated, studying in the most important academic centers of his day. He spent six years in Athens where he met life-long friend and ministry partner, Gregory of Nazianzus, and where he became unusually skilled in reason and rhetoric. On the one hand, his notable skill was an important part of his life’s work, but on the other hand, it was a thorn in the flesh because along with skill came intractable pride. But as we will see next week, God was faithful to provide people and circumstances that humbled Basil and prepared him to be greatly used of God.

When his time of preparation was complete, Basil began his public career as a professor at the University of Caesarea, but within a year Christ captured his heart in significant ways and he decided to forsake the academic world in favor of the monastic life. As he sought Christ, he grew in influence and then rose to prominence in 369 when the church sought to respond to a great famine. Basil’s great passion for the poor, and his ability to articulate the gospel, led him to be appointed Bishop of Caesarea, “and soon afterwards he started to build a charitable and medical center just outside the city, comprising a church, a hospital for the sick, a hospice for travelers, workshops, bishop’s residence and clerical quarters” (Nikolai Lipatov, Dictionary of Major Biblical Interpreters, InterVarsity: 2007, page 168).

In the ten years that followed, Basil became “one of the most significant exegetes and church leaders during the period when Christian belief was being articulated and developing into its enduring forms. His contribution to these processes was unique both in terms of its scope and the authority it soon gained. Basil’s work helped give definitive shape to trinitarian theology, biblical exegesis, liturgy, ascetic life, canon law, homiletics, the relationship church and state and the social work of the church. Basil based all theological reflection on the inseparable conjunction of the study of Scripture, a life of sacraments and personal spirituality” (Lipatov, page 167).

As we will see next week, Basil had significant flaws that were confronted by God and others throughout his life. But he is a hero of the church for whom we should be deeply thankful to God.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...

Reflective Glory: How the Moon Displays the Mercy of God

Our sun is a fitting metaphor for the glory of God. In the context of our solar system, it is massive, bright, beautiful, powerful, self-sufficient, heat-producing, life-giving, and dangerous. It is, by far, the dominant feature of our solar system and without it the system would fling apart and all living things therein would die.  On the other hand, our moon is a fitting metaphor for human beings, especially for those who believe in Jesus Christ. First, compared to the sun, the moon is tiny and dim. The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, its mass is 27 million times greater than the mass of the moon, and from our perspective its light shines 450,000 times brighter than that of the moon. The sun is so much greater than the moon that it’s difficult to quantify and express the difference. Likewise, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is so much great than each and all of us that it’s impossible to quantify or express the difference. Indeed, the Lord is very great and greatly...

Catechisms: Building a Heritage of Sound Faith - By Pastor Kevin Feder

This is an article I (Pastor Kevin) wrote in 2005 and updated in 2017. It is featured in a new resource available through Children’s Desiring God called Discipleship through Doctrinal Teaching and Catechism by Sally Michael.  It is our desire to encourage parents to use a children’s catechism as a tool in building and strengthening faith in children. A simple definition of a catechism is “organized teaching.” Catechisms are not the only things that can or should be used to instruct the next generation, yet they have useful purposes. Listed here are ten specific benefits a catechism can uniquely offer. Hopefully these ten points will help parents understand how a catechism can be effectively used in their families. 1.  A catechism is a very clear and complete gospel message. A catechism is, among other things, a very clear and concise gospel message to children. Everything a child needs to know for salvation is embodied within a catechism. The gospel is truly ama...