Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church blessed in the grace of God the Father in Christ Jesus our Saviour, in whom I greet the church which is at Magnesia on the Maeander, and I wish it abundant joy in God the Father and in Jesus Christ.
For having been counted worthy of a most God-befitting name, in the bonds which I carry about I sing of the churches, in which I pray for a union of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, our perpetual life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is preferred, and— what is greater— of Jesus and the Father; in whom, enduring all the abuse of the ruler of this age and escaping it, we shall attain to God.
Since, then, I was counted worthy to see you through Damas your most godly bishop, and the worthy presbyters Bassus and Apollonius, and my fellow-servant the deacon Zotion, of whom may I have joy, because he is subject to the bishop as to the grace of God and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ—
And it is fitting for you also not to take advantage of the bishop's youth, but according to the power of God the Father to render him all reverence, just as I have learned that the holy presbyters also have not taken advantage of his apparently youthful rank, but as men prudent in God yield to him— yet not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, the bishop of all.
For the honour, therefore, of him who willed us, it is fitting to obey without any hypocrisy; since it is not that one deceives this visible bishop, but he defrauds the Invisible One. In such a matter the reckoning is not with flesh, but with God, who knows the hidden things.
It is fitting, then, not only to be called Christians, but also to be such; just as some call a man bishop but do everything apart from him. Such people do not seem to me to act with a good conscience, because they do not assemble securely according to the commandment.
for just as there are two coinages, the one of God, the other of the world, and each of them has its own stamp impressed upon it— the unbelievers the stamp of this world, but the believers in love the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ, through whom, unless of our own will we have the readiness to die into his passion, his life is not in us.
Since, then, in the persons aforementioned I beheld your whole multitude in faith and loved them, I exhort you: be eager to do all things in the concord of God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and the deacons, most dear to me, entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ, who before the ages was with the Father and at the end appeared.
All of you, then, having received likeness to God, reverence one another, and let no one regard his neighbour according to the flesh, but love one another always in Jesus Christ. Let there be nothing among you that can divide you, but be united with the bishop and with those who preside, as a type and teaching of incorruption.
As, then, the Lord did nothing apart from the Father, being united with him, neither by himself nor through the apostles, so neither do you do anything apart from the bishop and the presbyters; nor attempt to make anything appear reasonable to you privately, but at the same place let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope in love, in blameless joy, which is Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is better.
All of you, run together as to one temple of God, as to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father and is in and has returned to the One.
Do not be led astray by strange doctrines nor by old fables that are unprofitable. For if we still live according to Judaism, we confess that we have not received grace.
For the most divine prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. For this reason also they were persecuted, being inspired by his grace, in order to convince the disobedient that there is one God, who manifested himself through Jesus Christ his Son, who is his Word that came forth from silence, who in all things was well-pleasing to him who sent him.
If, then, those who walked in old practices came to newness of hope, no longer keeping the sabbath but living according to the Lord's day— on which our life also dawned through him and through his death, which some deny, through which mystery we received faith, and on account of which we endure, that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ, our only teacher—
how shall we be able to live apart from him, of whom even the prophets, being his disciples in the Spirit, awaited him as teacher? And for this reason he whom they rightly awaited, when he came, raised them from the dead.
Let us not, then, be insensible to his goodness. For if he imitates us according to what we do, we are no longer. Therefore, having become his disciples, let us learn to live according to Christianity. For whoever is called by any name beyond this is not of God.
Put away, then, the evil leaven, grown old and sour, and change to the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in him, lest any among you be corrupted, since by the smell you will be tested.
It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ and to practise Judaism. For Christianity did not believe into Judaism, but Judaism into Christianity, in which every tongue that believed was gathered together unto God.
But I write these things, my beloved, not because I have learned that any of you are so disposed, but as one lesser than you I wish to forewarn you not to fall into the hooks of vainglory, but to be fully assured of the birth and the passion and the resurrection that took place in the time of the governorship of Pontius Pilate— things truly and certainly done by Jesus Christ, our hope, from which may none of you be turned away.
May I have joy of you in every way, if indeed I am worthy. For even though I am bound, I am not equal to one of you who are free. I know that you are not puffed up, for you have Jesus Christ in yourselves; and the more, when I praise you, I know that you are abashed, as it is written: 'The righteous man is his own accuser.'
Be eager, then, to be confirmed in the decrees of the Lord and of the apostles, that in all things, whatever you do, you may prosper in flesh and spirit, in faith and love, in the Son and the Father and in the Spirit, in the beginning and in the end, together with your most worthy bishop and the worthily woven spiritual crown of your presbytery and the deacons who are according to God.
Be subject to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ in the flesh was to the Father, and as the apostles to Christ and to the Father, so that there may be union both fleshly and spiritual.
Knowing that you are full of God, I have exhorted you briefly. Remember me in your prayers, that I may attain to God, and remember the church in Syria, of which I am not worthy to be called a member; for I have need of your united prayer in God and of your love, that the church in Syria may be counted worthy to be refreshed through your church.
The Ephesians from Smyrna greet you, from where I also write to you— they who are present for the glory of God, as you also are, who have refreshed me in every way together with Polycarp, bishop of the Smyrnaeans. And the rest of the churches also greet you in the honour of Jesus Christ. Farewell in the concord of God, you who possess an undivided spirit, which is Jesus Christ.