In our weekly prayer time over the phone this morning, a member shared this excerpt from a letter by Ignatius, a disciple and church leader on his way to martyrdom in the early second century.
What can stop us, when the kingdom of God and His righteousness is our passion!
[W]hen I suffer, I shall be the freed-man of Jesus, and shall rise again emancipated in Him.
And now, being a prisoner, I learn not to desire anything worldly or vain. . . .
Let fire and the cross;
let the crowds of wild beasts;
let tearings, breakings, and dislocations of bones;
let cutting off of members;
let shatterings of the whole body;
and let all the dreadful torments of the devil
come upon me.
Only let me attain to Jesus Christ. All the pleasures of the world, and all the kingdoms of this earth, will not profit me anything. It is better to die on behalf of Jesus Christ than to reign over all the ends of the earth. “For what will a man be profited if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?”
Him I seek, who died for us. Him I desire, who rose again for our sake. This is the gain which is laid up for me. . . . I have no desire for corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, who became afterwards the seed of David and Abraham. I desire to drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.
(Ignatius, The Epistle to the Romans, 4-6)