Jesus has set us a personal example
From a letter to the Philippians by Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr (c.69 – c. 155)
Jesus has set us a personal example
Presbyters should be sympathetic and merciful to everyone, bring back those who have wandered, visiting the sick; they must not neglect widows and orphans, or the poor, ever providing for what is good in the sight of God and of men. They should refrain entirely from anger, human respect and prejudice; avarice should be wholly alien to them. Nor should they be rash in believing something said against another, nor too severe in judging others, since they know that we are all debtors through sin.
If, then, we pray to the Lord to forgive us, we must in turn forgive. For we live under the eye of our Lord and God, and we must all stand before the judgment seat of God, each to give an account of himself. Let us then serve God with fear and awe. The Lord’s command is also the command of the apostles who preached the Gospel to us, to say nothing of the prophets who foretold the Lord’s coming. Our observance of what is good should be meticulous, 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.
For 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 is the firstborn of Satan. So let us abandon the folly of the masses and their false teaching, and 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. As the Lord has said: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
So let us persevere in the pledge of our righteousness and in our hope, that is, in 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. Rather, he endured everything for our sake so that we might live in him. Let us then imitate his constancy; if we should suffer because of his name, let us give him that glory. For this is the personal example he has given us, this is the object of our faith.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Polycarp (c.69 – c. 155) was a disciple of Saint John the apostle and was consecrated bishop of Smyrna by John. Polycarp was a staunch defender of orthodoxy and an energetic opponent of heresy, especially Velentianism and Marconioism. A letter to him from St. John has survived, as has his Epistle to the Philippians, in which he quotes from 1 John 4:3 and warns the Philippians against the false teachings of Marcion, whom he once called “the firstborn of Satan,” and which was widely read in Asian churches. He accompanied Saint Ignatius of Antioch to Rome to confer with Pope Anicetus concerning the date for celebrating Easter.
About the year 155, at age 86, Polycarp was arrested under the persecution of Christians by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. When Polycarp refused to sacrifice to the gods and acknowledge the Emperor’s divinity, he was ordered to be burned alive at the stadium of Smyrna. When the flames did not harm him, he was killed by a spear, and his body burned. The “Acts” of Polycarp’s martyrdom is among the earliest preserved and reliable account of a Christian martyrs’ death. Polycarp was one of the leading Christians in Roman Asia in the second century.