Poison in Honeyed Wine

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the holy church at Tralles in Asia — a church loved by God, the Father of Jesus Christ; chosen, and worthy of God; at peace in flesh and spirit through the suffering of Jesus Christ, who is our hope, in the resurrection that brings us to him. I greet this church in its fullness, in the apostles’ own stamp, and send my warmest greetings.

I have learned that your mind is without blemish and undivided in endurance — not as something you take up for the occasion, but as your own nature. Polybius, your overseer, showed me this. He came to Smyrna by the will of God and of Jesus Christ, and he shared my joy so completely — mine, a man in chains in Christ Jesus — that in him I was looking at your whole great number. So when I had received your godly goodwill through him, I gave glory, finding you to be what I already knew you were: imitators of God. [e]

For whenever you submit to the overseer as to Jesus Christ, you look to me like people living not in a human way but according to Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that by believing in his death you might escape dying. So it is necessary — as in fact you already do — that you do nothing without the overseer, but that you submit to the council of elders as to the apostles of Jesus Christ, our hope; and if we go on living in him, we will be found in him. And the deacons, who belong to the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must please everyone in every way. For they are not servers of food and drink, but attendants of God’s church. So they must guard themselves against any charge as they would against fire. [g]

In the same way, let everyone hold the deacons in respect as Jesus Christ, and the overseer as a copy of the Father, and the elders as God’s council and as the band that binds the apostles together. Apart from these, nothing is called a church. I am sure you already think this way about all of it. I received the sample of your love and I still have it with me, in your overseer. His very bearing is a great lesson, and his gentleness is a power. Even the godless, I think, respect him. Because I love you, I am holding back, though I could write about this far more sharply. I did not think it was my place — a man under sentence of death, giving you orders like an apostle. [i]

I have much on my mind in God, but I take my own measure, so that I do not perish by boasting. Right now I need to be all the more afraid, and to pay no attention to the people who puff me up. The ones who praise me are flogging me. I do love to suffer, but I do not know whether I am worthy of it. This jealousy does not show itself to many, but against me it makes war all the more. So what I need is gentleness, and in gentleness the ruler of this age is broken up. [m]

Am I not able to write to you about the things of heaven? But I am afraid of setting harm in front of you while you are still infants. Bear with me — I do not want you choked on what you cannot yet take in. Take me: I am in chains, and I can grasp the things of heaven, the stations of the angels, the musterings of the rulers, things seen and unseen. Even so, that does not make me a disciple yet. There is a great deal we still lack, so that we may not lack God. [p]

So I urge you — not I, but the love of Jesus Christ — take only Christian food, and keep away from any plant that is not yours, which is what a sect is. These people weave Jesus Christ in among themselves while they put on a show of being worth your trust. They are like men handing you a deadly drug in honeyed wine: the man who does not know takes it gladly, and in that evil pleasure he takes his own death. [s]

So keep watch against people like that. And you will, so long as you are not puffed up and stay inseparable from God — from Jesus Christ, and from the overseer, and from the apostles’ rulings. Whoever is inside the altar is pure; whoever is outside the altar is not pure. That is to say, anyone who does anything apart from the overseer and the council of elders and the deacons is not pure in his conscience. [u]

It is not that I have found anything of the kind among you. I am setting a guard around you in advance, because you are dear to me, and because I can see the devil’s ambushes ahead of time. So take up gentleness of temper and get your strength back — in faith, which is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, which is the blood of Jesus Christ. Let none of you hold anything against his neighbor. Do not hand the nations an opening, or a few foolish people will get the whole great number who are in God spoken against. For: “Woe to the man through whom my name is spoken against, over nothing, in front of anyone.” [w]

So make yourselves deaf when anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ — who came from the family of David, and came from Mary; who was truly born, and ate and drank; who was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; who was truly crucified and died, while those in heaven and those on earth and those under the earth looked on. He was also truly raised from the dead, his Father raising him. And in the same likeness his Father will raise us too, in Christ Jesus, we who believe in him — and apart from him we do not have the true life. [y]