Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Brothers, we must think about Jesus Christ the way we think about God — as judge of the living and the dead. And we must not think small thoughts about our salvation. For if we think small thoughts about him, we also expect to receive only small things, and those who listen as though the matter were small are sinning, and we too sin, not knowing where we were called from, and by whom, and to what place, and how much Jesus Christ endured to suffer for our sake. What repayment, then, shall we give him, or what fruit worthy of what he himself gave us? How many acts of devotion do we owe him? For he graciously gave us the light; he addressed us as sons, the way a father does; when we were on the verge of ruin, he rescued us. What praise then shall we give him, or what wage of repayment for what we received? We were maimed in understanding, worshiping stones and wood and gold and silver and bronze — all works of human hands — and our whole life was nothing other than death. Wrapped, then, in darkness and full of such mist in our sight, we regained our sight, laying aside that cloud we were wrapped in, by his own will. For he had mercy on us, and moved with compassion he saved us, seeing in us great wandering and ruin, and that we had no hope of salvation except the hope that came from him. For he called us when we did not exist, and willed us to come into being out of nothing.
Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear children; break out and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman are many, more than the children of her who has a husband. In saying, 'Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear children,' he spoke of us; before children were granted to it, our assembly had no offspring of its own. And in saying, 'Shout, you who are not in labor,' he means this: that we should offer up our prayers to God without pretense, not growing faint like women in labor. And in saying, 'For the children of the desolate woman are many, more than the children of her who has a husband,' he means that our people seemed to be forsaken by God, but now, having come to believe, we have become more numerous than those who were thought to have God. And another scripture says, 'I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners' — meaning that those who are perishing must be saved. For it is a great and wonderful thing not to prop up what is already standing, but to raise up what is falling. This was the will behind Christ's saving of the lost: though we were already ruined, he sought us out, summoned us, and rescued a great multitude.
Since he has shown us such great mercy, in the first place, that we who are alive do not sacrifice to dead gods nor bow down to them, but through him have come to know the Father of truth — what is this knowledge toward him, if not refusing to deny the one through whom we came to know him? He himself says, 'Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge him before my Father.' This, then, is our reward, if we acknowledge the one through whom we were saved. But in what way do we acknowledge him? By doing what he says and not disregarding his commands, and by honoring him not with lips only but with the whole heart and the whole mind. For he also says in Isaiah: 'This people honors me with the mouth, yet their thinking has wandered far away from me.'
Let us not, then, call him Lord only — that alone will not save us. For he says, 'Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will be saved, but the one who does righteousness.' So then, brothers, let us acknowledge him by our deeds: caring for each other, staying faithful in marriage, refraining from slander, avoiding envy, and instead practicing restraint, mercy, and goodness; and we ought to feel with one another and not love money. Let us acknowledge him by these deeds and not by their opposites; and we ought not to fear people more than we fear God. Because of this, if you do these things, the Lord said: 'Suppose you have gathered close to my chest, yet you fail to keep my commandments — I will throw you out and tell you: Get away from me; I have no knowledge of your origin, you doers of lawlessness.'
Therefore, brothers, let us leave behind our stay as strangers here below and carry out what the one who called us wills, without fearing to make our exit from this world. For the Lord says, 'You will be like lambs among wolves.' Peter answered him, 'What then if the wolves tear apart the lambs?' Jesus said to Peter, 'Once the lambs have died, they need fear the wolves no longer; and you likewise, do not fear those who kill you and can do nothing further to you, but fear the one who, after you have died, has power over soul and body to throw them into the fire of Gehenna.' And know, brothers, that our stay in this world in this flesh is small and short-lived, whereas Christ's promise is magnificent and awe-inspiring — rest in the coming kingdom and eternal life. What must we do, then, to obtain these things, but conduct ourselves in holiness and righteousness, and regard these worldly things as foreign to us, and not desire them? Craving to possess such goods is precisely what makes us stumble off the righteous course.
The Lord says, 'No servant can serve two masters.' Trying to be slaves both to God and to money profits us nothing. For what good does it do a man to gain the whole world while paying for it with his own soul? This age and the one to come are two enemies. This one speaks of adultery, corruption, love of money, and deceit; that one renounces these. We cannot, then, be friends of both; we must renounce the one and hold to the other. It is better, we conclude, to hate the things here, since they are small and short-lived and perishable, and to love those things instead — the good things that do not perish. Doing what Christ wills brings us rest; failing that, nothing can shield us from unending punishment once we have disobeyed his commands. And the scripture also says in Ezekiel: that even were Noah, Job, and Daniel to rise again, their own children would not escape captivity. And if such righteous men as these cannot rescue their own children by their righteousness, with what confidence will we enter the kingdom of God if we do not keep our baptism pure and undefiled? Or who will be our advocate, if we are not found having holy and righteous deeds?
So then, my brothers, let us compete, knowing that the contest is at hand, and that many enter the perishable contests, but not all are crowned — only those who have labored hard and competed well. Let us, then, compete so that we all may be crowned. Let us run the straight road, the imperishable contest, and let many of us enter it and compete, so that we too may be crowned; and even should not all of us manage to win the crown, may we at least draw near to it. We must know that whoever competes in the perishable contest, if found cheating, is whipped, disqualified, and thrown out of the stadium. What do you think, then, happens to the one who cheats in the contest of imperishability? For of those who do not keep the seal, it is said, 'their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.'
While we are still on earth, then, let us turn from our wrongs at once. For we are clay in the hand of the craftsman: just as the potter, if he is making a vessel and it gets twisted or broken in his hands, reshapes it again, but if he has already put it into the furnace of fire, he can no longer help it — so we too, while we are still in this world, must turn back with our whole heart from the evil we have done in the flesh, so that the Lord may bring us to salvation while the chance for such turning remains open to us. For once we have departed from this world, we can no longer confess or repent there any further. So then, brothers, by doing the will of the Father, holding the flesh to its purity, and guarding the Lord's commandments, we will receive eternal life. For the Lord says in the gospel: 'If you did not keep the small thing, who will give you the great thing? For I say to you, whoever is faithful in the very least is faithful also in much.' This, then, is what he means: hold the flesh to its purity and its mark of consecration free from blemish, so that we may receive eternal life.
None of you should claim that this body escapes judgment or resurrection. Understand: in what were you saved, in what did you regain your sight, if not while being in this flesh? This body, then, must be protected by us the way one protects a shrine belonging to God; for just as you were called in the flesh, you will also come in the flesh. If Christ the Lord who saved us, though he was first spirit, became flesh, and in this way called us, so too we will receive our reward in this flesh. Let us love one another, then, so that we may all come into the kingdom of God. While we still have time to be healed, let us hand ourselves over to God who heals us, giving him a repayment in return. What repayment? Repentance from a sincere heart. For he knows all things in advance and knows what is in our hearts. Let us, then, give him praise, not from the mouth alone, but from the heart as well, so that he may receive us as sons. For the Lord's own words were: 'Whoever does the will of my Father — these are my brothers.'
So then, my brothers, we should carry out the will of the Father who called us, so that we may live, and let us pursue virtue all the more, and abandon vice as a forerunner of our sins, and flee from irreverence, so that evils may not overtake us. For if we are eager to do good, peace will pursue us. For this reason it is impossible to find a person — among those who spread human fears, who have chosen the enjoyment found here instead of the promise to come — at peace. For they do not know what torment the enjoyment found here brings, and what delight the coming promise holds. And if they alone were doing these things, it would be bearable; but as it is, they persist in teaching their false doctrine to innocent souls, not knowing that they will receive a double judgment, both they themselves and those who listen to them.
Let us, then, serve God with a pure heart, and we will be righteous; but if we do not serve him because we do not believe the promise of God, we will be miserable. For the prophetic word also says: 'Miserable are the double-minded, who doubt in their heart, who say: We heard these things long ago, even in the days of our fathers, but though we have waited day after day, we have seen none of them come to pass.' You foolish people — think of yourselves in terms of a tree, say a grapevine: its leaves drop first, then comes a bud, next the sour unripe grape, and only afterward the finished cluster. So too my people has had turmoil and afflictions; afterward it will receive the good things. So then, my brothers, let us not be double-minded, but let us hope and endure, so that we too may collect our reward. For faithful is the one who promised to repay each according to his works. If, then, we do righteousness before God, we will enter his kingdom and receive the promises which no ear has heard nor eye seen, nor has it entered into the heart of man.
Let us, then, look for the kingdom of God hour by hour, in love and righteousness, since we do not know the day of God's appearing. For when the Lord himself was asked by someone when his kingdom would come, his answer was this: 'When duality becomes unity, the exterior matches the interior, and there is neither male nor female but a single being combining both.' Duality becomes unity in this sense: when we speak the truth to one another, and two bodies hold a single soul between them without pretense. And by 'the exterior matching the interior' he means: the soul is what he terms the interior thing, while the body is what he terms exterior. So then, just as your body is visible, so let your soul also be evident in good works. And by neither male nor female, a being combining both, he means: that a brother, seeing a sister, should think nothing about her as female, nor should he think anything about himself as male. Doing these things, he says, brings on the arrival of my Father's kingdom.
Brothers, then, let us repent at once; let us be sober toward what is good, since foolishness and wrongdoing have filled us to overflowing. Let us wipe away our former sins, and by repenting from the soul let us be saved, and let us not become people-pleasers, nor wish only to please ourselves, but also the people outside, by our righteousness, so that the name may not be blasphemed on our account. For the Lord says, 'My name is continually blasphemed among all the nations,' and again, 'Woe to the one on whose account my name is blasphemed.' In what way is it blasphemed? By your not doing what I wish. For the nations, hearing from our mouth the sayings of God, marvel at them as beautiful and great; but then, when they observe our deeds — that they are not worthy of the words we speak — they turn from there to blasphemy, saying it is some myth and delusion. For when they hear from us that God says, 'There is no credit to you if you love those who love you, but there is credit to you if you love your enemies and those who hate you' — when they hear this, they marvel at the extraordinary goodness; but when they see that we do not love even those who hate us, let alone those who love us, they laugh at us, and the name is blasphemed.
So then, brothers, by doing the will of our Father God we will belong to the first church, the spiritual one, created before the sun and moon. But if we do not do the will of the Lord, we will belong to that which the scripture speaks of: 'My house has become a den of robbers.' Let us, then, choose to belong to the church of life, so that we may be saved. I do not think you are unaware that Christ has a body, and that this living body is his church; for the scripture says that when God formed humanity he made them male and female — Christ corresponds to the male, the church to the female; and further, the books and the apostles declare that the church is not of the present but from above. For it was spiritual, as our Jesus also was, but was made manifest in the last days in order to save us. Its spiritual nature was disclosed to us through Christ's own flesh, showing us that if any of us keeps her in the flesh and does not corrupt her, he will receive her back in the Holy Spirit; the reason being that this flesh stands as an image of the spirit. No one, then, who corrupts the image will share in the original. This, then, is what it means, brothers: keep the flesh, so that you may share in the spirit. And supposing the flesh amounts to the church and the spirit amounts to Christ, whoever mistreats one has mistreated the other. Such a person, then, will not share in the spirit, who is Christ himself. This is the extent of life and imperishability this flesh can partake of, once joined to the Holy Spirit — something no one is capable of expressing or describing fully, the things the Lord has prepared for his chosen ones.
Do not suppose I regard this advice about self-control as trivial: whoever follows it will have no regrets, and will rescue himself along with me, the one who offered the counsel. For it is no small reward to turn back a wandering and perishing soul so that it may be saved. For we hold this repayment to give to God who created us, if the one who speaks and the one who listens both speak and listen in faith and love. Let us, then, remain in what we believed, righteous and holy, so that we may ask God with confidence, the one who says, 'While you are still speaking, I will say: Here I am.' For this saying is a sign of a great promise; the Lord describes his own eagerness to give as exceeding that of the one asking. Sharing then in such great kindness, let us not begrudge ourselves the attaining of such great goods. For as much pleasure as these words hold for those who do them, so much condemnation they hold for those who disregard them.
So then, brothers, having received no small occasion for repentance, while we still have time let us turn back to the God who called us, while we still have one who receives us. For if we renounce these pleasures and conquer our soul by not doing its evil desires, we will share in the mercy of Jesus. And know that the day of judgment is already coming, like a furnace ablaze, and some of the heavens will melt, and the whole earth will melt like lead in fire; and then the hidden and open works of people will be revealed. Almsgiving, then, is good, as is repentance for sin; fasting is better than prayer, but almsgiving is better than both; and love covers a multitude of sins, while prayer arising from a good conscience rescues from death. Blessed is everyone found full of these things; for almsgiving becomes a lightening of sin.
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