The Word of Righteousness

Polycarp, and the elders with him, to the church of God living as strangers at Philippi: may mercy and peace from God Almighty and from Jesus Christ our Savior be multiplied to you.

I rejoiced with you greatly in our Lord Jesus Christ, because you welcomed those men who are copies of true love, and sent them on their way as was fitting for you — men wrapped in chains that suit God’s holy ones, chains that are the crowns of those truly chosen by God and by our Lord. [b]

And I rejoiced because the firm root of your faith, spoken of since early times, is still holding out and bearing fruit for our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins endured all the way to death — and whom God raised, loosing the birth pains of Hades. Though you have never seen him, you trust him, and rejoice with a joy beyond words and full of glory, a joy many long to enter, knowing that you have been saved by grace, not out of works, but by God’s will through Jesus Christ.

So then, belt up your robes and serve God in fear and truth. Leave behind the empty talk and the error of the crowd, and put your trust in the one who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him glory and a throne at his right hand. Everything in heaven and on earth was put under him. Every breathing thing serves him. He is coming as judge of the living and the dead, and God will require his blood from those who refuse to obey him. [f]

But the one who raised him from the dead will raise us also, if we do his will and walk in his commands and love what he loved — keeping away from every kind of wrongdoing, from greed, love of money, slander, false testimony; not paying back evil for evil, or abuse for abuse, or a punch for a punch, or a curse for a curse; and remembering what the Lord said when he taught: “Do not judge, so that you are not judged. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Show mercy, so that you may be shown mercy. With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” And again: “Blessed are the poor, and those persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for the kingdom of God is theirs.”

Brothers, I am writing to you about righteousness not because I took it on myself, but because you asked me first. Neither I nor anyone else like me can keep up with the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul. When he was among you, face to face with the people of that time, he taught the word about truth accurately and reliably; and when he was away from you he wrote you letters. If you study them closely, you will be able to be built up into the faith that was given to you — the faith that is the mother of us all, with hope following after it and love going ahead of it, love toward God and Christ and toward the neighbor. For if anyone is inside these, he has carried out the command of righteousness; the person who has love is far from every sin. [j]

The love of money is the beginning of all troubles. So then, since we know that we brought nothing into the world and cannot carry anything out of it either, let us arm ourselves with the weapons of righteousness, and let us first teach ourselves to walk in the command of the Lord. [l]

Then teach our wives to walk in the faith given to them, and in love and purity — cherishing their own husbands in all truth, and loving everyone else equally, with complete self-control — and to bring their children up in the training that is the fear of God.

Teach the widows to keep their good sense about the faith of the Lord: praying without a break for everyone, staying far away from every malicious accusation, from slander, false testimony, love of money, and every other evil — knowing that they are God’s altar, that everything is examined for flaws, and that nothing escapes him, not a reasoning, not an intention, not one of the heart’s secrets.

So, knowing that God is not sneered at, we ought to live in a way worthy of his command and his glory. [o]

In the same way, deacons are to be blameless in the sight of his righteousness, as deacons of God and Christ and not of men: not slanderers, not two-tongued, not lovers of money, self-controlled in everything, tender-hearted, diligent, walking by the truth of the Lord, who became the servant of all. If we please him in the present age, we will receive the age to come as well, since he promised to raise us from the dead; and if we live as citizens worthy of him, we will also reign with him — if in fact we trust him.

In the same way, the younger men are to be blameless in everything, taking thought above all for purity and reining themselves in from every evil. It is good to be cut off from the cravings that are in the world, because every craving wages war against the spirit, and neither the sexually immoral, nor males who let themselves be used by other males, nor the males who use them, will inherit the kingdom of God — nor will those who do what is out of place. So we have to keep away from all of these, submitting to the elders and deacons as to God and Christ. And the virgins are to walk with a blameless and pure conscience.

And the elders are to be tender-hearted, merciful to everyone, bringing back those who have wandered off, looking in on all the sick, never neglecting a widow or an orphan or a poor man. Let them always take thought for what is good in the sight of God and of people, keeping away from all anger, from favoritism, from unjust judgment; staying far from any love of money; not quick to believe something against anyone, not harsh when they judge — knowing that we are all in debt because of sin. [r]

So if we ask the Lord to forgive us, we ought to forgive as well, since we stand in front of the eyes of our Lord and God, and every one of us has to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of himself.

So then, let us serve him with fear and all reverence, as he himself commanded, and as the apostles who brought us the good news, and the prophets who announced our Lord’s coming ahead of time. Let us be eager for what is good, keeping away from anything that trips people up, from false brothers, and from those who carry the Lord’s name in hypocrisy and lead empty-headed people astray.

For anyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist. Whoever does not confess the testimony of the cross is from the devil. And whoever twists the Lord’s sayings to fit his own cravings, and says there is no resurrection and no judgment, that man is the firstborn of Satan. [s]

So let us leave the empty talk of the crowd and their false teaching, and turn back to the word handed down to us from the beginning: staying clear-headed for our prayers and keeping at our fasting, asking the all-seeing God in our petitions not to bring us into testing, since the Lord said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

So let us hold on without a break to our hope and to the down payment of our righteousness, who is Christ Jesus — the one who carried our sins in his own body up onto the tree, who committed no sin and had no deceit found in his mouth, but endured everything for our sake, so that we might live in him. [v]

So let us become imitators of his endurance; and if we suffer for the sake of his name, let us give him glory. This is the copy he set for us in himself, and this is what we have believed.

So I urge all of you: obey the word of righteousness and train yourselves in every kind of endurance — the endurance you saw with your own eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus, but in others from among yourselves as well, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles. Be convinced that none of these men ran for nothing, but ran in faith and righteousness, and that they are now in the place they are owed, with the Lord, the one they also suffered with. For they did not love this present age; they loved the one who died for us and who was raised by God for our sake. [x]

So stand firm in these things and follow the Lord’s example: solid in the faith and not to be shifted, loving the brotherhood, devoted to one another, joined together in the truth, waiting on one another in the Lord’s gentleness, looking down on no one. [y]

When you are able to do good, do not put it off, because generosity to the poor rescues a person from death. All of you submit to one another. Keep your way of life above reproach among the nations, so that your good works may bring you praise and the Lord may not be reviled on your account. But how terrible for the man through whom the name of the Lord is reviled! So teach everyone good sense, and live it yourselves.

I am very grieved over Valens, who was once made an elder among you, because he so misunderstands the place he was given. So I warn you: keep yourselves from greed, and be chaste and truthful. Keep yourselves from every kind of evil. [ab]

A man who cannot govern himself in these things — how can he lay them down for anyone else? If a man does not keep himself from greed, he will be defiled by idolatry and will be judged as one of the nations, who do not know the Lord’s judgment. Or do we not know that God’s holy ones will judge the world, as Paul teaches?

But I have seen nothing of the kind among you, and heard nothing — you among whom the blessed Paul worked, you who stand at the beginning of his letter. He boasts about you in all the churches, the only ones that knew the Lord at that time; we ourselves did not yet know him.

So I am deeply grieved, brothers, for him and for his wife. May the Lord grant them true repentance. Be sensible about this yourselves. Do not treat such people as enemies; call them back as limbs that are suffering and going astray, so that you may save the body of you all. By doing this you build yourselves up.

I am confident that you are well trained in the sacred writings and that nothing there is hidden from you; to me that has not been granted. Only, as it is said in these writings: “Be angry and do not sin,” and “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Happy is the man who remembers this — and I believe you do. [ae]

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the everlasting high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth and in all gentleness, in freedom from anger, in patience, in long-suffering, in endurance and in purity; and may he give you a share and a portion among his holy ones — and us along with you, and everyone under heaven who is going to believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father, who raised him from the dead.

Pray for all the holy ones. Pray also for kings, for those in power, for rulers, for those who persecute you and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross — so that your fruit may be plain to everyone, and you may be complete in him.

You wrote to me, and so did Ignatius, asking that if anyone travels to Syria he should carry your letters along too. I will do this if I get a suitable opportunity — either I myself, or the man I send to represent me, and you as well. [ag]

As you instructed, we have sent you the letters of Ignatius that he sent to us, and any others we had with us. They are attached to this letter, and you will be able to gain a great deal from them, since they deal with faith and endurance and every kind of building up that has to do with our Lord. And whatever more definite news you have learned about Ignatius himself and about those who are with him, let us know.

I have written this to you by Crescens, whom I commended to you before and commend again now. He has lived among us blamelessly, and I believe he has among you too. And you will hold his sister in the same regard when she comes to you. Be safe in the Lord Jesus Christ, in grace, along with all who are yours. Amen. [ai]