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Ignatius of Antioch

Epistle to the Ephesians

Chapter 14

Exhortations to faith and love.

None of these things is hid from you, if ye perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus1 which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love.2 Now these two, being inseparably connected together,3 are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them. No man [truly] making a profession of faith sinneth;4 nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit;5 so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognised by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession,6 but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end.

Notes

  1. 1 Tim. i. 14.↩
  2. 1 Tim. i. 5.↩
  3. Literally, “being in unity.”↩
  4. Comp. 1 John iii. 7.↩
  5. Matt. xii. 33.↩
  6. Literally, “there is not now the work of profession.”↩

Translation by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and Frederick Crombie: The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, vol. 1: The Apostolic Fathers (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1870).
Text from Project Gutenberg eBook #77576, proofread by Distributed Proofreaders from Internet Archive scans. Public domain.