The Stamp on the Coin

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church blessed in the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus our Savior — in whom I greet the church at Magnesia on the Maeander. Fullest greetings in God the Father and in Jesus Christ.

When I learned how well ordered your love is — love lived God’s way — I was overjoyed, and I decided to talk with you in the faith of Jesus Christ. For since I have been counted worthy of a name that fits God best of all, in the chains I carry about with me I sing the praise of the churches. In them I pray for a union of the flesh and the spirit of Jesus Christ, who is our life always; and a union of faith and love — and nothing is ranked above love — and, most of all, of Jesus and the Father. In him, if we endure every spiteful attack of the ruler of this age and come through it, we will reach God. [c] Since, then, I was counted worthy to see you through Damas, your overseer, who is worthy of God, and through your worthy elders Bassus and Apollonius, and through my fellow servant Zotion the deacon — may I have joy of him! — because he submits to the overseer as to the grace of God, and to the council of elders as to the law of Jesus Christ … [f]

And it suits you not to trade on your overseer’s youth, but to give him every mark of respect, in keeping with the power of God the Father. I have found that even the holy elders have done exactly that: they have taken no advantage of the youthfulness plain to see in him, but yield to him as men who are wise in God — and not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, the overseer of us all. So, in honor of the One who willed us, it is fitting to obey with no hypocrisy in it. It is not that a man deceives this overseer whom he can see; he is trying to cheat the One who cannot be seen. And in a case like that the account is not settled with flesh, but with God, who knows what is hidden. [h]

So it is fitting not only to be called Christians but to be Christians — unlike some who call a man overseer and then do everything without him. People like that do not look to me as though they have a good conscience, since they do not hold firmly to gathering together as the command requires. [k]

Since, then, things have an end, and two things lie before us together — death and life — and each person is going to go to his own place … For there are two coinages, one God’s and one the world’s, and each carries its own stamp pressed into it. Unbelievers carry the stamp of this world; believers, in love, carry the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ. And unless we are willing, of our own choice, to die into his suffering, his life is not in us. [l]

Since, then, in the men I named above I have seen the whole body of you in faith, and have loved you, this is my appeal: be eager to do everything in God’s harmony, with the overseer presiding in God’s place, and the elders in the place of the apostles’ council, and the deacons — dearest of all to me — entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the ages and appeared at the end. So all of you, having taken on God’s own way of acting, show one another respect. Let no one look at his neighbor by the flesh, but love one another always in Jesus Christ. Let nothing be among you that has the power to split you. Be united instead with the overseer and with those who preside, as a pattern and a teaching of the life that does not decay. [o] So then, just as the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united with him — nothing by himself and nothing through the apostles — so you too do nothing without the overseer and the elders. And do not try to make anything you do on your own look reasonable. Instead, in one place: one prayer, one petition, one mind, one hope, in love, in joy without blemish — and that is Jesus Christ, and there is nothing better than he is. All of you, run together as to one temple of God, as to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who came out from one Father, and is with the One, and has gone back to the One. [q]

Do not be led astray by other teachings, or by old fables, which are no use to anyone. For if we are still living by Judaism up to now, we are admitting that we have not received grace. For the most godly prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. That is why they were persecuted, too — they were breathed into by his grace, so that people who would not be persuaded might be fully convinced that there is one God, who showed himself through Jesus Christ his Son. He is God’s Word, come forth out of silence, and in everything he pleased the One who sent him. [s] If, then, people who lived in the old ways came to a new hope — no longer keeping the sabbath, but living by the Lord’s day, the day on which our life also rose again through him and through his death, which some deny; and it is through this mystery that we came to have faith, and it is for this that we endure, so that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ, our only teacher — then how will we be able to live without him? Even the prophets were his disciples, and in the Spirit they were waiting for him as their teacher. And that is why, when the one they rightly waited for was present, he raised them from the dead. [u]

So let us not be senseless about his kindness. For if he copied the way we act, we would be finished. So, having become his disciples, let us learn to live the Christian way. Anyone who is called by some other name beyond this one does not belong to God. So put away the bad yeast, stale and gone sour, and change over to new yeast, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in him, so that no one among you goes rotten — since you will be found out by your smell. It is out of place to have Jesus Christ on your lips and to live like a Jew. For Christianity did not come to believe into Judaism, but Judaism into Christianity — into which every tongue that came to believe was gathered together to God. [w]