Since the Church in Antioch of Syria is at peace through your prayer, as it was reported to me, I too have become more cheerful in God’s freedom from anxiety, if indeed through suffering I attain God, so that in the resurrection I may be found your disciple.
It is fitting, Polycarp most blessed by God, to summon a most God-befitting council and appoint someone whom you dearly love and who is tireless, one who can be called a runner for God. Count him worthy to go to Syria and glorify your tireless love for the glory of God.
A Christian has no authority over himself, but devotes himself to God. This work is God’s and yours when you bring it to completion. For I trust in grace that you are ready for a good work belonging to God. Knowing the intensity of your devotion to the truth, I have exhorted you through a few written words.