TO THE EPHESIANS IGNATIUS TO THE EPHESIANS

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, sends heartiest good wishes for unalloyed 
joy in Jesus Christ to the Church at Ephesus in Asia; a church deserving of 
felicitation, blessed, as she is, with greatness through the fullness of 
God the Father; predestined, before time was, to be--to her abiding and 
unchanging glory--forever united and chosen, through real suffering, by the 
will of the Father and Jesus Christ our God.

1. With joy in God I welcomed your community, which possesses its dearly 
beloved name because of a right disposition, enhanced by faith and love 
through Christ Jesus our Savior. Being imitators  of God, you have, once 
restored to new life in the Blood of God, perfectly accomplished the task 
so natural to you. Indeed, as soon as you heard that I was coming from 
Syria in chains for our common Name and hope--hoping I might, thanks to 
your prayer, obtain the favor of fighting wild beasts at Rome and through 
this favor be able to prove myself a disciple--you hastened to see me. In 
the name of God, then, I have received your numerous community in the 
person of Onesimus, a man of indescribable charity and your bishop here on 
earth. I pray you in the spirit of Jesus Christ to love him, and wish all 
of you to resemble him. Blessed, indeed, is He whose grace made you worthy 
to possess such a bishop.

2. As to my fellow servant Burrus, your deacon by God's appointment and 
blessed with every gift, I wish he would stay at my side both for your 
honor and that of the bishop. But Crocus, too, a man of God and worthy of 
you, whom I received as a living example of your affection, has brought 
relief to me in every way; and I wish that the Father of Jesus Christ may 
comfort him in turn, as also Onesimus and Burrus and Euplus and Fronto, in 
whose persons I saw tokens of the affection of all of you. May you ever be 
my joy, if indeed I deserve it! It is therefore proper in every way to 
glorify Jesus Christ who has glorified you, so that you, fully trained in 
unanimous submission, may be submissive to the bishop and the presbytery, 
and thus be sanctified in every respect.

3. I give you no orders as though I were somebody. For, even though I am in 
chains for the sake of the Name, I am not yet perfected in Jesus Christ. 
Indeed, I am now but being initiated into discipleship, and I address you 
as my fellow disciples. Yes, I ought to be anointed by you with faith, 
encouragement, patient endurance, and steadfastness. However, ,since 
affection does not permit me to be silent when you are concerned, I am at 
once taking this opportunity to exhort you to live in harmony with the mind 
of God. Surely, Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, for His part is the 
mind of the Father, just as the bishops, though appointed throughout the 
vast, wide earth, represent for their part the mind of Jesus Christ.

4. Hence it is proper for you to act in agreement with the mind of the 
bishop; and this you do. Certain it is that your presbytery, which is a 
credit to its name, is a credit to God; for it harmonizes with the bishop 
as completely as the strings with a harp. This is why in the symphony of 
your concord and love the praises of Jesus Christ are sung. But you, the 
rank and file, should also form a choir, so that, joining the symphony by 
your concord, and by your unity taking your key note from God, you may with 
one voice through Jesus Christ sing a song to the Father. Thus He will both 
listen to you and by reason of your good life recognize in you the melodies 
of His Son. It profits you, therefore, to continue In your flawless unity, 
that you may at all times have a share in God.

5. For a fact, if I in a short time became so warmly attached to your 
bishop--an attachment based not on human grounds but on spiritual--how much 
more do I count you happy who are as closely knit to him as the Church is 
to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father! As a result, the 
symphony of unity is perfect. Let no one deceive himself: unless a man is 
within the sanctuary, he has to go without the Bread of God. Assuredly, if 
the prayer of one or two has such efficacy, how much more that of the 
bishop and the entire Church! It follows, then: he who absents himself from 
the common meeting, by that very fact shows pride and becomes a sectarian; 
for the Scripture says: God resists the proud. Let us take care, therefore, 
not to oppose the bishop, that we may be submissive to God.

6. Furthermore: the more anyone observes that a bishop is discreetly 
silent, the more he should stand in fear of him. Obviously, anyone whom the 
Master of the household puts in charge of His domestic affairs, ought to be 
received by us in the same spirit as He who has charged him with this duty. 
Plainly, then, one should look upon the bishop as upon the Lord Himself. 
Now, Onesimus for his part overflows with praise of the good order that, 
thanks to God, exists in your midst. Truth is the rule of life for all of 
you, and heresy has no foothold among you. The fact is, you have nothing 
more to learn from anyone, since you listen to Jesus Christ who speaks 
truthfully.

7. Some there are, you know, accustomed with vicious guile to go about with 
the Name on their lips, while they indulge in certain practices at variance 
with it and an insult to God. These you must shun as you would wild beasts: 
they are rabid dogs that bite in secret; you must beware of them, for they 
are hard to cure. a There is only one Physician, both carnal and spiritual, 
born and unborn, God become man, true life in death; sprung both from Mary 
and from God, first subject to suffering and then incapable of it--Jesus 
Christ Our Lord.

8. Let no one, then, deceive you, as indeed you are not being deceived, 
belonging wholly to God. For as long as no dissension calculated to plague 
you has taken firm root among you, it follows that you are leading a life 
conformable to God. Your lowliest servant, I also consecrate myself to you 
Ephesians--that Church whose renown will go down the ages. The carnal 
cannot live a spiritual life, nor can the spiritual live a carnal life, any 
more than faith can act the part of infidelity, or infidelity the part of 
faith. But even the things you do in the flesh are spiritual, for you do 
all things in union with Jesus Christ.

9. I have heard of certain persons from elsewhere passing through, whose 
doctrine was bad. These you did not permit to sow their seed among you; you 
stopped your ears, so as not to receive the seed sown by them. You consider 
yourselves stones of the Father's temple, prepared for the edifice of God 
the Father, to be taken aloft by the hoisting engine of Jesus Christ, that 
is, the Cross, while the Holy Spirit serves you as a rope; your faith is 
your spiritual windlass and your love the road which leads up to God. And 
thus you all are fellow travelers, God-bearers and temple-bearers, Christ-
bearers and bearers of holiness, with the commandments of Jesus Christ for 
festal attire. At this I am jubilant, privileged as I am to converse with 
you through this letter, and to congratulate you because in your 
otherworldliness you love nothing but God alone.

10. But pray unceasingly also for the rest of men, for they offer ground 
for hoping that they may be converted and win their way to God. Give them 
an opportunity therefore, at least by your conduct, of becoming your 
disciples. Meet their angry outbursts with your own gentleness, their 
boastfulness with your humility, their revilings with your prayers, their 
error with your constancy in the faith, their harshness with your meekness; 
and beware of trying to match their example. Let us prove ourselves their 
brothers through courtesy. Let us strive to follow the Lord's example and 
see who can suffer greater wrong, who more deprivation, who more contempt. 
Thus no weed of the devil will be found among you; but you will persevere 
in perfect chastity and sobriety through Jesus Christ, in body and soul.

11. The last epoch has arrived! Therefore let us exercise restraint and 
fear lest God's long-suffering should turn to our condemnation. Obviously, 
we must either fear the gathering storm of anger or else cherish the 
present time of grace--one of the two; only let us be found in union with 
Christ Jesus so as to possess the true life. Apart from Him, let nothing 
fascinate you. In union with Him I carry about these chains of mine--
spiritual pearls they are! May I be privileged through your prayer--in 
which I wish I may ever have a share--to wear them when I rise from the 
dead! Thus I shall be found in the ranks of the Christians of Ephesus, who 
have ever been of one mind with the Apostles through the power of Jesus 
Christ.

12. I know who I am and to whom I am writing. I have been condemned, you 
have been spared; I am in danger, you are in perfect safety. YOU are the 
highway of God's martyrs. You are fellow initiates with Paul, a man 
sanctified, of character magnificently attested, and worthy of every 
felicitation, in whose footsteps I wish to be found when I come to meet 
God, and who in an entire epistle remembers you in Christ Jesus.

13. Make an effort, then, to meet more frequently to celebrate God's 
Eucharist and to offer praise. For, when you meet frequently in the same 
place, the forces of Satan are overthrown, and his baneful influence is 
neutralized by the unanimity of your faith. Peace is a precious thing: it 
puts an end to every war waged by heavenly or earthly enemies.

14. Nothing of this escapes you; only persevere to the end in your faith 
in, and your love for, Jesus Christ. Here is the beginning and the end of 
life: faith is the beginning, the end is love; and when the two blend 
perfectly with each other, they are God. Everything else that makes for 
right living is consequent upon these. No one who professes faith sins; no 
one who possesses love hates. The tree is known by its fruit. In like 
manner, those who profess to belong to Christ will be known as such by 
their conduct. Certainly, what matters now is not mere profession of faith, 
but whether one is found to be actuated by it to the end.

15. It is better to keep silence and be something than to talk and be 
nothing. Teaching is an excellent thing, provided the speaker practices 
what he teaches. Now, there is one Teacher who spoke and it was done. But 
even what He did silently is worthy of the Father. He who has made the 
words of Jesus really his own is able also to hear His silence. Thus he 
will be perfect: he will act through his speech and be understood through 
his silence. Nothing is hidden from the Lord; no, even our secrets reach 
Him. Let us, then, do all things in the conviction that He dwells in us. 
Thus we shall be His temples and He will be our God within us. And this is 
the truth, and it will be made manifest before our eyes. Let us, then, love 
Him as He deserves.

16. Do not be deceived, my brethren. Those who ruin homes will not inherit 
the kingdom of God. Now, if those who do this to gratify the flesh are 
liable to death, how much more a man who by evil doctrine ruins the faith 
in God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a filthy creature will 
go into the unquenchable fire, as will anyone that listens to him.

17. The Lord permitted myrrh to be poured on His head that He might breathe 
incorruption upon the Church. Do not let yourselves be anointed with the 
malodorous doctrine of the Prince of this world, for fear he may carry you 
off into captivity--away from the life that is in store for you. Why do we 
not all become wise, having received knowledge of God, that is, Jesus 
Christ! Why do we perish in folly, failing to appreciate the gift which the 
Lord has sent us in truth!

18. I offer my life's breath for the sake of the Cross, which is a 
stumbling block to the unbelievers, but to us is salvation and eternal 
life. What has become of the philosopher? What of the controversialist? 
What of the vaunting of the so-called intellectuals? The fact is, our God 
Jesus Christ was conceived by Mary according to God's dispensation of the 
seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit. He was born and was 
baptized, that by His Passion He might consecrate the water.

19. And the Prince of this world was in ignorance of the virginity of Mary 
and her childbearing and also of the death of the Lord--three mysteries 
loudly proclaimed to the world, though accomplished in the stillness of 
God! How, then, were they revealed to the ages? A star blazed forth in the 
sky, outshining all the other stars, and its light was indescribable, and 
its novelty provoked wonderment, and all the starry orbs, with the sun and 
the moon, formed a choir round that star; but its light exceeded that of 
all the rest, and there was perplexity as to the cause of the unparalleled 
novelty. This was the reason why every form of magic began to be destroyed, 
every malignant spell to be broken, ignorance to be dethroned, an ancient 
empire to be overthrown--God was making His appearance in human form to 
mold the newness of eternal life! Then at length was ushered in what God 
had prepared in His counsels; then all the world was in an upheaval because 
the destruction of death was being prosecuted.

20. If Jesus Christ, yielding to your prayer, grants me the favor and it is 
His will, I shall, in the subsequent letter which I intend to write to you, 
still further explain the dispensation which I have here only touched upon, 
regarding the New Man Jesus Christ--a dispensation founded on faith in Him 
and love for Him, on His Passion and Resurrection. I will do so especially 
if the Lord should reveal to me that you--the entire community of you!--are 
in the habit, through grace derived from the Name, of meeting in common, 
animated by one faith and in union with Jesus Christ--who in the flesh was 
of the line of David, the Son of Man and the Son of God--of meeting, I say, 
to show obedience with undivided mind to the bishop and the presbytery, and 
to break the same Bread, which is the medicine of immortality, the antidote 
against death, and everlasting life in Jesus Christ.

21. I offer my life as a ransom for you and for those whom for the glory of 
God you sent to Smyrna, where, too, I am writing to you with thanks to the 
Lord and with love for Polycarp and you. Remember me, as may Jesus Christ 
remember you! Pray for the Church in Syria, whence I am being led away in 
chains to Rome, though I am the least of the faithful there. But then, I 
was granted the favor of contributing to the honor of God. Farewell! May 
God the Father and Jesus Christ, our common Hope, bless you!