Polycarp to the Philippians

1I rejoiced greatly with you in our Lord Jesus Christ. You received the examples of true love and sent them on their way, as was your duty. They were bound in chains fitting for the saints, chains that are diadems for those truly chosen by God and our Lord.

I also rejoiced because the firm root of your faith, proclaimed from ancient times, remains to this day and bears fruit for our Lord Jesus Christ. He endured for our sins even to the point of death, and God raised him, loosing the pangs of Hades.

Though you have not seen him, you believe in him with joy inexpressible and glorified, a joy many long to enter. You know that by grace you have been saved, not by works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

2So gird up your loins and serve God in fear and truth. Abandon the empty foolish talk and the error of the many. Believe in the one who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him glory and a throne at his right hand. To him all things in heaven and on earth were subjected. Every breath serves him. He comes as judge of the living and the dead, and God will require his blood from those who disobey him.

The one who raised him from the dead will also raise us, if we do his will and walk in his commandments and love what he loved, holding back from all wrongdoing, greed, love of money, evil speech, and false witness. Do not repay evil for evil, or insult for insult, or blow for blow, or curse for curse.

Remember what the Lord said when he taught: Do not judge, so that you may not be judged (Matthew 7:1). Forgive, and you will be forgiven (Luke 6:37). Show mercy, so that you may receive mercy (Luke 6:36). With what measure you measure, it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38). And blessed are the poor and those persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3, 5:10).

3Brothers and sisters, I am not writing to you about righteousness because I decided to on my own. You yourselves asked me to write.

For neither I nor anyone like me can follow closely the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul. When he was among you, he stood before the people of that time and taught the word of truth accurately and firmly. And when he was away, he wrote you letters. If you look closely into them, you will be able to be built up in the faith that was given to you.

That faith is the mother of us all. Hope follows after it, and love goes before it: love toward God and Christ and toward the neighbor. For if anyone lives within these things, that person has fulfilled the commandment of righteousness. The one who has love is far from all sin.

4The love of money is the beginning of all troubles. Since we know that we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it, let us arm ourselves with the weapons of righteousness and first teach ourselves to walk in the commandment of the Lord.

Then teach our wives to love their own husbands in all truth, in the faith and love and purity given to them, and to love everyone equally with all self-control, and to raise their children in the discipline of the fear of God.

Teach the widows to be self-controlled in the faith of the Lord, to intercede constantly for everyone, to keep far from all slander, gossip, false witness, love of money, and every evil, knowing that they are an altar of God and that everything is examined, and nothing is hidden from him—neither reasonings nor thoughts nor any of the secrets of the heart.

5Since we know that God is not mocked, we are obligated to walk in a manner worthy of his commandment and his glory.

In the same way, deacons must be blameless before his righteousness, since they are deacons of God and Christ, not of human beings: not slanderers, not double-tongued, not lovers of money, self-controlled in everything, compassionate, diligent, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who became a deacon of all. If we please him in this present age, we will also receive the age to come, just as he promised to raise us from the dead, and if we live as citizens worthily of him, we will also reign with him—if indeed we believe.

In the same way, the younger men must be blameless in everything, concerned above all for purity and bridling themselves from every evil. For it is good to be cut off from the desires in the world, because every desire wages war against the spirit, and neither the sexually immoral nor the soft nor men who lie with males will inherit the kingdom of God, nor those who do what is improper. Therefore it is necessary to abstain from all these things, submitting to the elders and deacons as to God and Christ. The virgins must walk with a blameless and pure conscience.

6The elders, for their part, must be compassionate and merciful toward everyone. They must turn back those who have wandered away, visit all who are sick, and not neglect the widow, the orphan, or the poor. Instead, they must always provide for what is good in the sight of God and of people. They must keep away from all anger, partiality, and unjust judgment, and stand far from every love of money. They must not be quick to believe a charge against anyone, nor harsh in judgment, because they know that we are all debtors of sin.

If, then, we ask the Lord to forgive us, we also ought to forgive. For we stand before the eyes of the Lord and God, and all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and each one will give an account of himself.

So then, let us serve him with fear and all reverence, just as he commanded and as the apostles who preached the gospel to us and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of our Lord commanded. Let us be zealous for what is good, keeping away from stumbling blocks, from false brothers, and from those who bear the name of the Lord in hypocrisy and lead empty people astray.

7Anyone who will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an antichrist. Anyone who will not confess the testimony of the cross belongs to the devil. And anyone who twists the Lord's sayings to suit his own desires and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment—that man is the firstborn of Satan.

So let us abandon the vanity of the many and their false teachings, and turn back to the word that was handed down to us from the beginning. Let us be sober in prayer, persist in fasting, and in our petitions ask the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation, as the Lord said: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41).

8So let us hold fast without ceasing to our hope and to the pledge of our righteousness, who is Christ Jesus. He carried up our sins in his own body to the tree. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth (Isaiah 53:9). Yet for our sake, so that we might live in him, he endured everything.

Let us then become imitators of his endurance, and if we suffer for his name, let us glorify him. For he set this example before us through himself, and we have believed it.

9So I urge all of you: obey the word of righteousness and practice every kind of endurance. You saw this endurance with your own eyes, not only in the blessed Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others from among you, and in Paul himself and the rest of the apostles.

Be persuaded that none of these ran in vain. They ran in faith and righteousness, and they are now in the place owed to them, beside the Lord with whom they also suffered. For they did not love this present age. They loved the one who died for us and was raised by God for our sake.

10Stand firm, then, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord—unshaken in faith, lovers of the brotherhood, devoted to one another, joined together in truth, waiting for one another in the gentleness of the Lord, and looking down on no one.

When you are able to do good, do not put it off, because almsgiving frees from death (Tobit 4:10). All of you be subject to one another, and keep your conduct blameless among the gentiles, so that through your good works you may receive praise and the Lord may not be blasphemed because of you.

But woe to the one through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed. Teach everyone, then, the self-control in which you yourselves also live.

11I am deeply grieved for Valens, who was once made an elder among you, because he has so little understanding of the place that was given to him. I urge you, therefore, to keep yourselves from the love of money and to be pure and truthful. Keep yourselves from every evil.

If someone cannot govern himself in these matters, how can he proclaim them to another? If anyone does not keep himself from the love of money, he will be defiled by idolatry and will be judged as though among the gentiles, who do not know the judgment of the Lord. Or do we not know that the holy ones will judge the world (1 Corinthians 6:2)? As Paul teaches.

I have neither perceived nor heard of any such thing among you, among whom the blessed Paul labored and who are in the beginning of his letter. For he boasts about you in all the churches, which alone knew the Lord at that time; we had not yet known him.

So then, brothers and sisters, I am greatly grieved for him and for his wife, and may the Lord give them true repentance. Be sober-minded, then, in this matter yourselves as well. Do not regard such people as enemies, but call them back as suffering and straying members, so that you may save the body of all of you. For in doing this you build up yourselves.

12I am confident that you are well trained in the sacred writings and that nothing escapes you; this has not been granted to me. Only, as it is said in these scriptures, be angry and do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger (Psalm 4:5 LXX; Ephesians 4:26). Blessed is the one who remembers this, and I believe it is true of you.

May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself, the Son of God and eternal high priest, build you up in faith and truth, in all gentleness and freedom from anger, in endurance, long-suffering, forbearance, and purity. May he give you a lot and a share among his saints, and to us with you, and to all under heaven who are to believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father, who raised him from the dead.

Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings and authorities and rulers, for those who persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, so that your fruit may be manifest in all things and you may be made perfect in him.

13You and Ignatius both wrote to me asking that if anyone is going to Syria, he should also carry your letters there. I will do this, if I find a suitable opportunity, either myself or through someone I send to be an ambassador on your behalf as well.

We have sent you the letters of Ignatius that he sent to us, along with all the others we had with us, just as you instructed. They are attached to this letter, and you will be able to gain great benefit from them, for they contain faith, endurance, and every kind of edification that pertains to our Lord. And regarding Ignatius himself and those who are with him, report to us whatever you learn with greater certainty.

14I have written these things to you through Crescens, whom I commended to you when he was with you before, and I commend him to you again now. He has lived among us blamelessly, and I believe he will do the same among you. You will also receive his sister as one commended to you when she comes to you. Be safe in the Lord Jesus Christ, in grace with all your people. Amen.

PrefacePolycarp and the elders with him, to the church of God that sojourns at Philippi: may mercy and peace from God Almighty and Jesus Christ our Savior be multiplied to you.