#MartyrMonday: St. Polycarp

About this sermon

Polycarp Epistle to the Philippians: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.vi.iii.iii.html Martyrdom Told by the Letter from the Church in Symnrna: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/richardson/fathers.vii.i.iii.html Life of Polycarp from the Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (to the end of the 6th century): https://goo.gl/SVqSzu Excerpts from Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians: (6-7) Let us be zealous for that which is good, refraining from occasions of scandal and from false brethren, and those who bear in hypocrisy the name of the Lord, who deceive empty-headed people. For "whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist"; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross "is of the devil"; and whosoever perverts the sayings of the Lord to suit his own lusts and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment—such a one is the first-born of Satan. Let us, therefore, forsake the vanity of the crowd and their false teachings and turn back to the word delivered to us from the beginning, "watching unto prayer" and continuing steadfast in fasting, beseeching fervently the all-seeing God "to lead us not into temptation," even as the Lord said, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (8) Let us, then, hold steadfastly and unceasingly to our Hope and to the Pledge of our righteousness, that is, Christ Jesus, "who bore our sins in his own body on the tree, who committed no sin, neither was guile found on his lips"; but for our sakes he endured everything that we might live in him. Therefore let us be imitators of his patient endurance, and if we suffer for the sake of his name, let us glorify him. For he set us this example in his own Person, and this is what we believed. World-Wide Wolfmueller http://www.wolfmueller.co For weekly doses of theological curiosities to comfort and encourage, subscribe to the Wednesday What-Not: http://www.wolfmueller.co/wednesday The Bookstore where (almost) everything is free: http://www.wolfmueller.co/books