death and life, are set before us at one and the same time, so
Icnatius oF ANTIOCH the bishop's youth, but rather, because he embodies the authority of God the Father, to show him every mark of respect—and your presbyters, so I learn, are doing just that: they do not seek to profit by his youthfulness, which strikes the bodily eye;'® no, they are wise in God** and therefore defer to him—or, rather, not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, the bishop of all men. 2 So, then, for the honor of Him who has deigned** to choose us, it is proper to obey without any hypocrisy. It is not really that a man deceives this particular bishop who is visible, but tries to overreach
Him who is invisible. When this happens, his reckoning is not with man, but with God who knows what is secret.
4. The proper thing, then, is not merely to be styled Christians,*" but also to be such—just as there are those who style a man bishop, but completely disregard him in their conduct. Such persons do not seem to me to have a good conscience, inasmuch as they do not assemble in the fixed order *® prescribed by him.
5. Now, as all things have an end, and those two issues, death and life, are set before us at one and the same time, so each man is bound to go to his own place." 2 It is the same as with two coinages, the one of God, the other of the world; and each of them has its own stamp impressed upon it: the unbelievers bear the stamp of this world, while the believers, animated by love, bear the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ, whose life is not in us unless we are ready of our own accord to die in order** to share in His Passion.
6. Since, then, in the persons mentioned before I have with the eyes of the faith looked, upon your whole community and have come to love it, I exhort you to strive to do all things in harmony with God: the bishop is to preside *°