Let us run our race in faith
From a letter to the Philippians by Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr (c. 69-c.155)
Let us run our race in faith and righteousness
I ask you all to respond to the call of righteousness and to practice boundless patience. your own eyes have seen it not only in blessed Ignatius, Zosimus and Rufus, but in others from among you as well, to say nothing of Paul and the other apostles. Be assured that all these men did not run their race in vain. No, they ran it in faith and in righteousness and are now with the Lord in the place that they have earned, even as they were once with him in suffering. Their love was not for this present world; rather, it was for him who died for our sakes and, on account of us, was raised up again by God.
Be steadfast, then, and follow the Lord’s example, strong and unshaken in faith, loving the community as you love one another. United in the truth, show the Lord’s own gentleness in your dealings with one another, and look down on no one. If you can do good, do not put it off, because almsgiving frees one from death. Be subject to one another, and make sure that your behavior among the pagans is beyond reproach. Thus you will be praised for the good you have done, and the Lord will not be blasphemed because of you. But woe to that man on whose account the Lord’s name is blasphemed. Therefore, teach everyone to live soberly, just as you live yourselves.
I am greatly saddened on account of Valens who at one time was presbyter among you; he does not understand the position to which he was called. So I urge all of you to be chaste and honest, to avoid avarice and to refrain from every form of evil. If a man cannot control himself in these ways, how can he teach someone else to do so? If he does not avoid greed, he will be defiled by idolatrous practices and will be reckoned as one of the pagans who know nothing of the Lord’s judgment. Or, as Paul teaches: Do we not know that the holy ones will judge the world.
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 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 evil. 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.