Polycarp 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 Saviour be multiplied to you.
I rejoiced greatly with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because you received the imitations of true love and, as was fitting for you, sent on their way those bound with chains befitting the saints—chains that are diadems of those truly chosen by God and our Lord;
and because the firm root of your faith, proclaimed from ancient times, still remains until now and bears fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ, who endured for our sins even to the point of facing death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of Hades;
in whom, though you have not seen him, you believe with joy unspeakable and full of glory—a joy into which many desire to enter—knowing that you are saved by grace, not of works, but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.