St Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna; Letter to the Philippians
(circa year 130)
St Polycarp was a well-known and venerable figure of the first half of the second century. From Tertullian, St Irenaeus, and Eusebius, we learn that he listened at Ephesus to St John the Apostle, who appointed him bishop of nearby Smyrna.
Of his life, we know that St Polycarp journeyed to Rome to consult with Pope Anicetus on some ecclesiastical matters; that he was the spiritual father of St Irenaeus of Lyons; and that St Ignatius of Antioch wrote to him the preceding letter. St Polycarp was martyred in the year 156; the next chapter contains the details of his martyrdom. St Ignatius and St Polycarp are the great links between the apostles and the succeeding generations of early Christian Apologists.
The Christian community of Philippi had asked from Polycarp a copy of the letters of St Ignatius of Antioch. Polycarp sent these, together with this letter in his own hand. Some dispute that the present text may be the combination of two letters of St Polycarp
1 From Polycarp and his fellow priests to the pilgrim Church of God at Philippi: May you have mercy and peace in abundance from Almighty God and Jesus Christ our Savior.
I rejoice with you greatly in the Lord Jesus Christ because you have assumed the pattern of true love and have rightly helped on their way those who were in chains. Such chains are a rich crown for the chosen ones of our Lord and God.
I am glad, too, that your deep‑rooted faith, proclaimed of old, still abides and continues to bear fruit in the life‑giving power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, for our sins, did not refuse to go down to death, and “God raised him up after destroying the pains of hell.” #1 With a glorious joy that no words can express, you believe in Christ without seeing him. This is the joy in which many wish to share, “knowing that by grace you are saved, not by anything of your own” (Eph 2:8), by the Will of God through Jesus Christ.
2 So prepare yourselves for the struggle, serve the Lord in fear and truth. Put aside empty talk and the desire to be like the others; your faith must be in him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him a share in his own glory and a seat at his right hand. To him everything was made subject in heaven and on earth; all things obey him, who will come as Judge of the living and the dead. All who refuse to believe in him must answer to God for the Blood of his Son.
He who raised him from the dead will raise us, too, if we do his Will and keep his commandments, loving what he loved, refraining from all wrongdoing, fraud, greed, malice, and slander. We must abstain from false witness, not returning evil for evil, nor curse for curse, nor blow for blow, nor denunciation for denunciation. Always remember the words of the Lord who taught: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; forgive and you will be forgiven; be merciful and you will find mercy; the amount you measure out to others will be the amount measured out to you. Blessed are the poor and those who suffer persecution, for theirs is the Kingdom of God” (Mt 5:3.10).
3 It is not out of presumption that I write to you, my brothers, on what sanctity of life means, but rather because you asked me to do so. For neither I nor anyone like me can equal the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul. When he was in your city, he fully and courageously taught the men of that time the word of truth; when he was absent, he wrote you letters. By carefully studying these letters, you can strengthen yourselves in the faith that has been given to you. This faith is “the mother of us all;” it is followed by hope, and preceded by charity –love of God, of Christ, of our neighbor. Whoever lives within this framework has fulfilled the commandment of sanctity. For anyone who has charity is far from sin.
4 The source of all evil is the desire to possess. Mindful that we brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out of it, put on the armor of a holy life. Begin by learning how to walk in the commandment of the Lord.
Teach your wives to walk in the faith that has been handed down to them. In charity and in purity, women must cherish their husbands with complete fidelity; they must esteem all others equally, in complete chastity; they must raise their children in the discipline that comes from fear of God.
Teach widows to be discreet in all that concerns the faith of the Lord; they must pray for all without ceasing, shunning all calumny, gossip, false witness, greed, in a word, every sort of evil. They must bear in mind that they are God’s sacrificial altar. He sees everything clearly, nothing escapes his vigilance, be it calculation, intentions, thoughts, or some secret desire of the heart.
5 God, as we know, is not mocked. Walk in a way that is worthy of his commands and his plan for salvation. Deacons, in the same way, must be blameless in the sight of his goodness, for they are ministers of God and of Christ, not of men. They must avoid slander, hypocritical talk, and greed. Compassionate and diligent, they must control all their desires, walking according to the truth of the Lord who became the servant of all. If we please him in this life, we shall receive the life to come; he has promised us that he will raise us from the dead, and we will reign with him, if we lead lives worthy of him.
Young men must likewise be clean in all respects, loving purity above everything else and keeping themselves free from the chains of selfish passions. It is fundamental to be cut off from self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is at war against the Spirit; and you know perfectly well that “people of immoral lives, the adulterers, the effeminate, and the homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9). You must abstain from all this.
Young girls must also walk with an innocent and pure conscience.
This is what our faith tells us.
The letter contains a portrait of the ideal priest.
6 Priests should be compassionate and merciful to everyone, bringing back those who have wandered astray, visiting the sick; they must not neglect widows and orphans, or the poor, but “always providing for what is good in the sight of God and of men” (2 Cor 8:21). They should entirely refrain from anger, human respect, and prejudice; love of money should be wholly alien to them. They should not be rash in believing something said against another, or too severe in judging others, since they know that we are all debtors through sin.
If we pray to the Lord to forgive us, we must in turn forgive. Now we stand before the eyes of our Lord and God; later “we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, each to give an account of himself” (Rom 14:10.12). Let us then serve God with fear and reverence.
The Lord’s command is also the command of the apostles who preached the Gospel to us, and the command of the prophets who foretold the Lord’s coming. We must carefully observe what is good, avoiding anything that might cause another to stumble; we must shun false brothers and those who assume the Lord’s Name hypocritically and lead the unwary into error.
St Polycarp defends the faith in the mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord, and the reality of his death on the Cross.
7 Anyone who does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is the Antichrist. And anyone who refuses to admit the testimony of the Cross is of the devil. Whoever perverts the Lord’s words to suit his own desires and denies that there is a resurrection or a judgment, that one is the firstborn of Satan.
So, let us abandon the folly of the crowd and their false teachings; let us return to the teaching that was handed down to us from the beginning. We must be alert in prayer, constant in fasting; and in our prayers, let us beg God, who sees everything, “not to lead us into temptation.” For, as the Lord has said, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
8 Without interruption, let us persevere in our hope and in the guarantee of our salvation, that is, Christ Jesus. “In his mouth, no hint of guilt was discovered; he committed no sin and yet bore our sins in his own Body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:22.24). Rather, he endured everything for our sake so that we might live in him.
Let us then imitate his patience in suffering; if we suffer because of his Name, let us give him that glory. This is the personal example he has given us; this is the object of our faith.
9 I ask you all to respond to the call of God, to practice boundless patience, and to bear your sufferings. Your own eyes have seen it not only in blessed Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus, but in others from among you as well, to say nothing of Paul and the other apostles. Be assured that all these men “did not run their race in vain” (Phil 2:16). No, they ran it with faith and with sanctity of life; now they are with the Lord in the place they have earned, because they accompanied him in suffering. “Their love was not for this present world” (1 Tim 4:10); it was for Jesus, who died for our sakes and was raised up again by God, for our sakes.
Generosity and works of mercy are marks of a Christian.
10 Be steadfast, then, and follow the Lord’s example; be strong and unshaken in faith; love the community and one another. United in the truth, show the Lord’s own gentleness in helping one another, and look down on no one. If you can do better, do not put it off, because generosity in the struggle frees one from eternal death.
Be subject to one another, and always behave honorably among the pagans. You will be praised for the good you have done, and the Lord will not be blasphemed because of you. But woe to him on whose account the Name of the Lord is blasphemed. Teach everyone to live soberly, just as you live yourselves.
11 I am greatly saddened on account of Valens, who was once made a priest among you; he does not understand the dignity of his calling. So I urge all of you to be chaste and honest, to avoid greed, and to refrain from every form of evil. If a man cannot control himself in these things, how can he teach others? If he does not avoid greed, he will be defiled by idolatrous practices and will become as one of the pagans who know nothing of the Lord’s judgment. Or, as Paul teaches: “Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world?” (1 Cor 6:2).
However, I have never seen or heard of anything of that sort among you, for whom blessed Paul labored and whom he commends at the beginning of his letter. He spoke in high terms of you in all the churches that had come to know God, at that time; we ourselves had not yet come to that knowledge.
Brothers, I am deeply sorry for Valens and for his wife; may the Lord grant them true repentance. As for yourselves, be mortified in those matters. Do not look on such people as enemies, but invite them back as weak members who have gone astray, so that the entire Body of which you are a part will be saved. In doing this, you are contributing to your own spiritual development.
12 I am sure that you are well grounded in the Scriptures and that nothing of their message escapes you. I, however, am not so fortunate. As these same Scriptures put it: “Be angry and do not sin” (Ps 4:5) and “do not let the sun set on your anger” (Eph 4:26). Blessed is the man who bears this in mind, as I am sure you do.
May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Eternal High Priest himself, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and in truth and in great gentleness. May you never know anger, but be patient, without resentment, long‑suffering, persevering, and chaste. May he grant you a place among his saints; and may he give the same to us, along with you, as well as to all on earth who put their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father, who has raised him from the dead.
Prayer for the civil authorities is expressly advised.
Keep all the saints in your prayers. Pray, too, for our rulers, for our leaders, and for all those in power; even for those who persecute and hate you, and for those who are enemies of the Cross. Thus, your good works will be seen by all men, and you will be perfect in God.
13 Both you and Ignatius have written me to ask whether anyone going to Syria will deliver your letter, as well as ours. If the opportunity offers itself, I will do it; if I cannot, I will send a representative.
As you request, we have returned to you the letters Ignatius sent us and as many other letters as we had; they are being enclosed with this letter. You will derive great benefit from them, for they are full of faith and patience, and great edification in all that refers to our Lord. Send us any certain information you may have about Ignatius and his companions.
14 I am sending this letter to you by Crescens, whom I commended to you when I was present, and do so again. He has lived blamelessly among us, as I am sure he will among you. When his sister comes to you, she, too, will come with our commendation.
Footnote:
1. (Acts 2:24) This is the earliest registered quotation from the Acts of the Apostles.
St Polycarp was a well-known and venerable figure of the first half of the second century. From Tertullian, St Irenaeus, and Eusebius, we learn that he listened at Ephesus to St John the Apostle, who appointed him bishop of nearby Smyrna.
Of his life, we know that St Polycarp journeyed to Rome to consult with Pope Anicetus on some ecclesiastical matters; that he was the spiritual father of St Irenaeus of Lyons; and that St Ignatius of Antioch wrote to him the preceding letter. St Polycarp was martyred in the year 156; the next chapter contains the details of his martyrdom. St Ignatius and St Polycarp are the great links between the apostles and the succeeding generations of early Christian Apologists.
The Christian community of Philippi had asked from Polycarp a copy of the letters of St Ignatius of Antioch. Polycarp sent these, together with this letter in his own hand. Some dispute that the present text may be the combination of two letters of St Polycarp
1 From Polycarp and his fellow priests to the pilgrim Church of God at Philippi: May you have mercy and peace in abundance from Almighty God and Jesus Christ our Savior.
I rejoice with you greatly in the Lord Jesus Christ because you have assumed the pattern of true love and have rightly helped on their way those who were in chains. Such chains are a rich crown for the chosen ones of our Lord and God.
I am glad, too, that your deep‑rooted faith, proclaimed of old, still abides and continues to bear fruit in the life‑giving power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, for our sins, did not refuse to go down to death, and “God raised him up after destroying the pains of hell.” #1 With a glorious joy that no words can express, you believe in Christ without seeing him. This is the joy in which many wish to share, “knowing that by grace you are saved, not by anything of your own” (Eph 2:8), by the Will of God through Jesus Christ.
2 So prepare yourselves for the struggle, serve the Lord in fear and truth. Put aside empty talk and the desire to be like the others; your faith must be in him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him a share in his own glory and a seat at his right hand. To him everything was made subject in heaven and on earth; all things obey him, who will come as Judge of the living and the dead. All who refuse to believe in him must answer to God for the Blood of his Son.
He who raised him from the dead will raise us, too, if we do his Will and keep his commandments, loving what he loved, refraining from all wrongdoing, fraud, greed, malice, and slander. We must abstain from false witness, not returning evil for evil, nor curse for curse, nor blow for blow, nor denunciation for denunciation. Always remember the words of the Lord who taught: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; forgive and you will be forgiven; be merciful and you will find mercy; the amount you measure out to others will be the amount measured out to you. Blessed are the poor and those who suffer persecution, for theirs is the Kingdom of God” (Mt 5:3.10).
3 It is not out of presumption that I write to you, my brothers, on what sanctity of life means, but rather because you asked me to do so. For neither I nor anyone like me can equal the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul. When he was in your city, he fully and courageously taught the men of that time the word of truth; when he was absent, he wrote you letters. By carefully studying these letters, you can strengthen yourselves in the faith that has been given to you. This faith is “the mother of us all;” it is followed by hope, and preceded by charity –love of God, of Christ, of our neighbor. Whoever lives within this framework has fulfilled the commandment of sanctity. For anyone who has charity is far from sin.
4 The source of all evil is the desire to possess. Mindful that we brought nothing into this world and can take nothing out of it, put on the armor of a holy life. Begin by learning how to walk in the commandment of the Lord.
Teach your wives to walk in the faith that has been handed down to them. In charity and in purity, women must cherish their husbands with complete fidelity; they must esteem all others equally, in complete chastity; they must raise their children in the discipline that comes from fear of God.
Teach widows to be discreet in all that concerns the faith of the Lord; they must pray for all without ceasing, shunning all calumny, gossip, false witness, greed, in a word, every sort of evil. They must bear in mind that they are God’s sacrificial altar. He sees everything clearly, nothing escapes his vigilance, be it calculation, intentions, thoughts, or some secret desire of the heart.
5 God, as we know, is not mocked. Walk in a way that is worthy of his commands and his plan for salvation. Deacons, in the same way, must be blameless in the sight of his goodness, for they are ministers of God and of Christ, not of men. They must avoid slander, hypocritical talk, and greed. Compassionate and diligent, they must control all their desires, walking according to the truth of the Lord who became the servant of all. If we please him in this life, we shall receive the life to come; he has promised us that he will raise us from the dead, and we will reign with him, if we lead lives worthy of him.
Young men must likewise be clean in all respects, loving purity above everything else and keeping themselves free from the chains of selfish passions. It is fundamental to be cut off from self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is at war against the Spirit; and you know perfectly well that “people of immoral lives, the adulterers, the effeminate, and the homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9). You must abstain from all this.
Young girls must also walk with an innocent and pure conscience.
This is what our faith tells us.
The letter contains a portrait of the ideal priest.
6 Priests should be compassionate and merciful to everyone, bringing back those who have wandered astray, visiting the sick; they must not neglect widows and orphans, or the poor, but “always providing for what is good in the sight of God and of men” (2 Cor 8:21). They should entirely refrain from anger, human respect, and prejudice; love of money should be wholly alien to them. They should not be rash in believing something said against another, or too severe in judging others, since they know that we are all debtors through sin.
If we pray to the Lord to forgive us, we must in turn forgive. Now we stand before the eyes of our Lord and God; later “we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, each to give an account of himself” (Rom 14:10.12). Let us then serve God with fear and reverence.
The Lord’s command is also the command of the apostles who preached the Gospel to us, and the command of the prophets who foretold the Lord’s coming. We must carefully observe what is good, avoiding anything that might cause another to stumble; we must shun false brothers and those who assume the Lord’s Name hypocritically and lead the unwary into error.
St Polycarp defends the faith in the mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord, and the reality of his death on the Cross.
7 Anyone who does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is the Antichrist. And anyone who refuses to admit the testimony of the Cross is of the devil. Whoever perverts the Lord’s words to suit his own desires and denies that there is a resurrection or a judgment, that one is the firstborn of Satan.
So, let us abandon the folly of the crowd and their false teachings; let us return to the teaching that was handed down to us from the beginning. We must be alert in prayer, constant in fasting; and in our prayers, let us beg God, who sees everything, “not to lead us into temptation.” For, as the Lord has said, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
8 Without interruption, let us persevere in our hope and in the guarantee of our salvation, that is, Christ Jesus. “In his mouth, no hint of guilt was discovered; he committed no sin and yet bore our sins in his own Body on the tree” (1 Pet 2:22.24). Rather, he endured everything for our sake so that we might live in him.
Let us then imitate his patience in suffering; if we suffer because of his Name, let us give him that glory. This is the personal example he has given us; this is the object of our faith.
9 I ask you all to respond to the call of God, to practice boundless patience, and to bear your sufferings. Your own eyes have seen it not only in blessed Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus, but in others from among you as well, to say nothing of Paul and the other apostles. Be assured that all these men “did not run their race in vain” (Phil 2:16). No, they ran it with faith and with sanctity of life; now they are with the Lord in the place they have earned, because they accompanied him in suffering. “Their love was not for this present world” (1 Tim 4:10); it was for Jesus, who died for our sakes and was raised up again by God, for our sakes.
Generosity and works of mercy are marks of a Christian.
10 Be steadfast, then, and follow the Lord’s example; be strong and unshaken in faith; love the community and one another. United in the truth, show the Lord’s own gentleness in helping one another, and look down on no one. If you can do better, do not put it off, because generosity in the struggle frees one from eternal death.
Be subject to one another, and always behave honorably among the pagans. You will be praised for the good you have done, and the Lord will not be blasphemed because of you. But woe to him on whose account the Name of the Lord is blasphemed. Teach everyone to live soberly, just as you live yourselves.
11 I am greatly saddened on account of Valens, who was once made a priest among you; he does not understand the dignity of his calling. So I urge all of you to be chaste and honest, to avoid greed, and to refrain from every form of evil. If a man cannot control himself in these things, how can he teach others? If he does not avoid greed, he will be defiled by idolatrous practices and will become as one of the pagans who know nothing of the Lord’s judgment. Or, as Paul teaches: “Do you not know that the holy ones will judge the world?” (1 Cor 6:2).
However, I have never seen or heard of anything of that sort among you, for whom blessed Paul labored and whom he commends at the beginning of his letter. He spoke in high terms of you in all the churches that had come to know God, at that time; we ourselves had not yet come to that knowledge.
Brothers, I am deeply sorry for Valens and for his wife; may the Lord grant them true repentance. As for yourselves, be mortified in those matters. Do not look on such people as enemies, but invite them back as weak members who have gone astray, so that the entire Body of which you are a part will be saved. In doing this, you are contributing to your own spiritual development.
12 I am sure that you are well grounded in the Scriptures and that nothing of their message escapes you. I, however, am not so fortunate. As these same Scriptures put it: “Be angry and do not sin” (Ps 4:5) and “do not let the sun set on your anger” (Eph 4:26). Blessed is the man who bears this in mind, as I am sure you do.
May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Eternal High Priest himself, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and in truth and in great gentleness. May you never know anger, but be patient, without resentment, long‑suffering, persevering, and chaste. May he grant you a place among his saints; and may he give the same to us, along with you, as well as to all on earth who put their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father, who has raised him from the dead.
Prayer for the civil authorities is expressly advised.
Keep all the saints in your prayers. Pray, too, for our rulers, for our leaders, and for all those in power; even for those who persecute and hate you, and for those who are enemies of the Cross. Thus, your good works will be seen by all men, and you will be perfect in God.
13 Both you and Ignatius have written me to ask whether anyone going to Syria will deliver your letter, as well as ours. If the opportunity offers itself, I will do it; if I cannot, I will send a representative.
As you request, we have returned to you the letters Ignatius sent us and as many other letters as we had; they are being enclosed with this letter. You will derive great benefit from them, for they are full of faith and patience, and great edification in all that refers to our Lord. Send us any certain information you may have about Ignatius and his companions.
14 I am sending this letter to you by Crescens, whom I commended to you when I was present, and do so again. He has lived blamelessly among us, as I am sure he will among you. When his sister comes to you, she, too, will come with our commendation.
Footnote:
1. (Acts 2:24) This is the earliest registered quotation from the Acts of the Apostles.