Epistle to the Philippians

Chapter 7

Avoid the Docetæ, and persevere in fasting and prayer.

“For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;”¹ and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross,² is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from³ the beginning; “watching unto prayer,”⁴ and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God “not to lead us into temptation,”⁵ as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.”⁶

Notes

1 John iv. 3.↩
Literally, “the martyrdom of the cross,” which some render, “His suffering on the cross.”↩
Comp. Jude 3.↩
1 Pet. iv. 7.↩
Matt. vi. 13, xxvi. 41.↩
Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiv. 38.↩

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.