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To the Philippians
St Polycarp of Smyrna, Lake, Loeb 1912
Chapter 7
Warning against heresy
“For everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is an anti-Christ”; and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the Cross is of the devil: and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord for his own lusts, and says that there is neither resurrection nor judgment,—this man is the first-born of Satan.1
Wherefore, leaving the foolishness of the crowd, and their false teaching, let us turn back to the word which was delivered to us in the beginning, “watching unto prayer” and persevering in fasting, beseeching the all-seeing God in our supplications “to lead us not into temptation,” even as the Lord said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Notes
- This phrase, according to Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. iii. 3, 4.) was applied, presumably later, by Polycarp to Marcion.