The Early Church Fathers Series (Part 4): Some Reflections on Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp

In this fourth installment of my series on the early Church Fathers, I want to pause and share some reflections regarding the first three Fathers I have looked at: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna. These three are commonly referred to as the “Apostolic Fathers” because, although being the earliest of the Church Fathers outside the New Testament period, they nevertheless are believed to have actually known some of the original apostles. That is what Church Tradition and some Christian writings from those early centuries tell us.

I have just gotten through teaching these three Fathers in my Early Church Theologians class at the local university here in North Alabama, and as I prepared for covering them in class, I took the time to actually write out in my own paraphrased version all of their writings (I shared my truncated version of I Clement in my post on Clement). The process was a bit time consuming, but it did force me to really slow down and contemplate what these Fathers were saying—what they were emphasizing and what they felt was most important in the Christian life. If you take the time to read them, I am willing to bet that, on the surface, they seem rather dull and over-simplistic. Where are the amazing spiritual insights that just impress you so much that you want to take a quote and turn it into an inspirational wall-hanging, so you can feel spiritual every time you walk past it?

You’re not going to find too much stuff like that, unless you think that Ignatius’ thoughts about his upcoming death are “inspirational”: I don’t want what men call “life” anymore. I can get what I want very soon, provided that none of you interfere.

But if you take the time to really contemplate what these three men wrote, you’ll find that what they were conveying was quite profound in its simplicity. Simply put, the “theology” of these Apostolic Fathers was not some academic or lofty, esoteric musings. It was rooted in the very practical, daily life of the Church as they sought to live out, in the most practical of ways, the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. They were trying to write long treatises or textbooks that only PhD level academics could ponder. Their writing pretty much consisted of saying, “You’re the Church. You’re the Body of Christ. Here’s how you should strive to live. Your manner of living is the best witness to the theology of the Gospel.”

Having said all that, I just want to share what I learned the most from Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp in terms of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be the Church, and what is fundamentally important in the Christian life. As I go through the following points, take notice how each point weaves together with the others.

Apostolic Succession and Preserving Apostolic Teaching
One of the things that these men are constantly emphasizing in their writings to the various churches is the importance of obeying your bishop. Don’t deviate from your bishop, treat your bishop as you would Christ (and treat the clergy and deacons around him as you would the Apostles). Loyalty to the bishop was of the utmost importance. Now, if you’ve grown up in Evangelicalism (or really any denomination of Protestantism), this seems a little odd. It all sounds just a bit “too Catholic.” (And please, don’t hear the word “bishop” and think of a Pope-like figure walking around in flowing robes and big hat! We’re simply talking about the appointed church leader in church communities throughout the Roman world at the time.) In many Protestant churches, the pastor almost has to placate the congregation, or else he might essentially get fired.

In the early Church, though, the role of the bishop was crucial. They were the leaders of area churches that were appointed by the previous bishop and clergy, who were appointed by the previous bishop and clergy, going all the way back to an actual Apostle. This is known as apostolic succession. The significance of this is that the bishop had the sacred duty of preserving the apostolic teaching that Jesus handed down to His apostles and that they in turn handed down to the churches they established throughout the Roman Empire. That was why staying faithful to one’s bishop was such a big deal to these Apostolic Fathers. Christians were to obey their bishop, because the bishop was the one who was the preserver of the original Gospel message and apostolic teaching.

Church Unity, and Warning Against Heresies, Divisions, and Factions
This leads to a second major point of emphasis in the Apostolic Fathers: the importance of Church unity. We have to remember that in the late first century and early second century, this “Christianity thing” was still a relatively new thing. Although it started off as a Jewish messianic movement, it wasn’t really Judaism anymore. After the Jewish War of AD 66-70, the only two “kinds of Judaism” that survived were the Pharisaic brand that eventually became Rabbinic Judaism, from which modern Judaism descended, and the Jesus messianic movement that ultimately became Christianity.

So, in the time of the Apostolic Fathers, there was still a push-and-pull between Christianity and the emerging new kind of Judaism, and they were adamant to their churches: Christianity is not the same as this new kind of Judaism. At the same time, since these churches were sprinkled throughout the pagan Roman Empire, and there were some pagans, heavily influenced by Greek philosophy that saw the material world as “icky,” who were attracted to this notion of Christ being Lord of all “principalities and heavenly powers,” but who couldn’t fathom that He could ever have really been a flesh-and-blood person. These people, who we’ve come to recognize as Gnostics or Docetists, claimed to be followers of a “heavenly/immaterial Christ,” but rejected the idea he was a real material person in history. The Apostolic Fathers had to repeatedly warn their churches against these heresies as well: Christianity is about Jesus, who was both divine and a real human being, who really was born, lived, suffered, died, and bodily resurrected from the dead—so don’t listen to anyone who denies that.

So, what does all that have to do with Church unity? Everything, actually! Church unity was rooted in adherence to the apostolic teaching and Gospel that was preserved by the bishop, who was in the line of apostolic succession. The other false teachers, be they Jews or Gnostics, were essentially saying that the bishop and the apostolic teaching he preserved was wrong, and that caused inevitable division and factions among Christians in the Church. Simply put, an inevitable hallmark of these false and heretical teachings was that they always brought about divisiveness, divisions, hurt feelings, and factions. That is why the Fathers often used the imagery of “poisonous weeds” and “bitter fruit” to describe these false teaching—they ended up killing the unity of the Church.

The Heart and Soul of the Gospel and Apostolic Teaching: Look to the Eucharist and Resurrection
That leads us to the third point of emphasis. What exactly is at the heart of the apostolic teaching that helps preserve Church unity? No, it wasn’t some elaborate exposition on the atonement that perfectly explained how Christ’s death saved us. It was something much more simple and profound than that: The Eucharist, the Eucharist, the Eucharist. Celebrate the Eucharist as a Church Body as much as you can. Understanding its significance and what it is declaring is the key to Christian theology and the Christian life.

Now, I have to admit, even though I grew up in church (my church celebrated communion once a month), I didn’t really “get” it. Yes, you had the piece of bread and the small cup of grape juice (Wine? Are you kidding me? Not in Evangelicalism, baby!). Yes, they represented the body and blood of Jesus that was sacrificed for our sins. Okay—so once in a while, we do this to remember what he did for us, and during communion we’re supposed to think of any sins we might have committed since we last asked for forgiveness, and we’re supposed to repent of them before we actually eat the bread and drink the grape juice, because Paul said in I Corinthians that anyone who eats and drinks without “discerning the body,” eats and drinks damnation upon himself—and we don’t want that! Let’s face it, that tends to be the way communion is viewed and done. That’s pretty much it.

But for the Apostolic Fathers, there is a whole lot more to consider. It wasn’t just a thing to do to remember what Jesus did. The Eucharist was seen as the crystallization of all of Christian theology. First, it was centered on Christ—not a phantom, but a flesh-and-blood person, who was also divine. Through His sacrificial death, God was saving humanity from death, reconciling humanity to Himself, and transforming humanity to something more than being slaves to death.

Second, because of Christ’s physical resurrection, we are able to see His Passion as the way through which we attain immortality and new life. And that means that Christians are called to participate in Christ’s Passion—symbolically through the Eucharist, and potentially in real life through martyrdom—as the means by which they are to join with Christ in His glory and victory over death.

Third, in the Eucharist, we not only see Christ’s suffering and sacrifice, but also His humility. He did what He did in order to create a new humanity: the Church, the Body of Christ. We are to be unified in Him by imitating Him, and that means sacrificing our own wants and desires and putting the welfare of others ahead of our ourselves for the purpose of bringing about and maintaining the unity of the Body of Christ. When imitate Christ in His Passion and sacrifice, we contribute to the building up and unifying of God’s people.

Fourth, we can embrace and take part in Christ’s Passion because, with His resurrection, we have the guarantee that our resurrection is coming. It is that Gospel news of Christ’s own resurrection that gives us the understanding to embrace sacrificial suffering for the sake of others.

Finally, that is why the Apostolic Fathers repeatedly emphasized the importance of coming together as the Body of Christ for the Liturgy and the Eucharist. It is, if you will, a kind of taking part in a play—a Passion play. It helps us understand our part as a Christian, as a member of Christ’s body, and it crystalizes the very pattern of life we are to emulate: A life patterned after imitating Christ’s Passion for the redemption of creation and the unity of Christ’s body—for it is through the Church, patterned after the imitation of Christ, that God is redeeming the world.

Now, all of that sounds good, and it is easy to just read that and nod along to those nice-sounding words. But if we really take all that to heart, it should push us to look at our own lives and evaluate just how much we value these things. Do we really value the apostolic teaching, or do we easily get distracted by teachings and cultural trends that actually undercut it in subtle ways and accept certain teachings that, dare I say, are ultimately heretical and whose “fruit” can be seen in the divisions and brokenness they bring about? Do we really work toward unity among God’s people, or do we let our own egos and bitterness get the best of us? It’s. In fact, as I read the Apostolic Fathers, it struck me that they were both encouraging unity and speaking out (rather harshly!) against heretical teachings. Think about that—that’s quite a needle to try to thread! Working toward unity, while at the same time confronting divisive teachings. I mean, “confronting divisiveness”—quite the oxymoron! How do you do that and still work toward harmony and unity?

Look to the Eucharist, the Apostolic Fathers would say, and figure it out. I don’t know about you, but that is sobering to me. It requires a lot of humility to do that. Where do you learn that kind of humility?

Look to the Eucharist and pattern your life after it. Do the best you can and extend mercy to others when they fail to do it perfectly, and hope they extend that same mercy to you when you fail. Love God. Love your neighbor. Imitate Christ. Look the Eucharist…and look forward to the resurrection, when all will be transformed.