Follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, (cf 1Peter 2:17) and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because "alms deliver from death" (Tobit 4:10, 12:9). Be all of you subject to one another, (cf 1 Peter 5:5), "having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles", (1 Peter 2:12) that ye may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! (Isa 52:5) Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct.
+St. Polycarp of Smyrna, from The Epistle of Polycarp, chapter X, in Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment