I’ve been having some discussions with a friend of mine about authority in the Church. It so “happened” that today’s Office of Readings contained some primary texts that are important to this matter. The Office of Readings, after some opening Psalms, consists of a Scripture reading, either from the Old or New Testament, followed by an excerpt from some of the great writings out of the history of the Church.

Today’s Scripture reading was the third chapter of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. Most of the chapter is about qualifications for Bishops (called “overseers” in some translations) and Deacons, which Timothy was supposed to appoint as leader of the church in Ephesus. Then Paul makes the following statement in verse 15, which is important for understanding the nature and function of the Church.

but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

The second reading was from a letter by St. Ignatius of Antioch, the third Bishop of Antioch (if you count Peter as the first Bishop of Antioch). One legend is that when Jesus picked up a little child and said that you must be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven, that child was Ignatius. There is no historical evidence to this story, but Ignatius would have been a small child at the time of Jesus’ public ministry.

When he writes the following letter, he is an old man, having been arrested by the Romans, and is on his way to Rome to be killed by wild animals in the Collosium. This letter shows how the understanding of Church leadership had advanced from the time of Paul’s letter to Timothy. In the New Testament writings, the word for Bishop and Elder seem to be used interchangably. By the time of Ignatius’ letter, they are seen as very distinct offices, where one Bishop is the pastor of the church in a city, and he is assisted by the clergy, which is a council of elders, along with the deacons, who serve the needs of the congregation.

Reports of your splendid character have reached me: how you are beyond reproach and ever unshaken in your patient endurance – qualities that you have not acquired but are yours by nature. My informant was your own bishop Polybius, who by the will of God and Jesus Christ visited me here in Smyrna. He so fully entered into my joy at being in chains for Christ that I came to see your whole community embodied in him. Moreover, when I learned from him of your God-given kindliness toward me, I broke out in words of praise for God. It is on him, I discovered, that you pattern your lives.

Your submission to your bishop, who is in the place of Jesus Christ, shows me that you are not living as men usually do but in the manner of Jesus himself, who died for us that you might escape death by belief in his death. Thus one thing is necessary, and you already observe it, that you do nothing without your bishop; indeed, be subject to the clergy as well, seeing in them the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, for if we live in him we shall be found in him.

Deacons, too, who are ministers of the mysteries of Jesus should in all things be pleasing to all men. For they are not mere servants with food and drink, but emissaries of God’s Church; hence they should guard themselves against anything deserving reproach as they would against fire.

Similarly, all should respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, just as all should regard the bishop as the image of the Father, and the clergy as God’s senate and the college of the apostles. Without these three orders you cannot begin to speak of a church. I am confident that you share my feelings in this matter, for I have had an example of your love in the person of your bishop who is with me now. His whole bearing is a great lesson, and his very gentleness wields a mighty influence.

By God’s grace there are many things I understand, but I keep well within my limitations for fear that boasting should be my undoing. At the moment, then, I must be more apprehensive than ever and pay no attention at all to those who flatter me; their praise is as a scourge. For though I have a fierce desire to suffer martyrdom, I know not whether I am worthy of it. Most people are unaware of my passionate longing, but it assails me with increasing intensity. My present need, then, is for that humility by which the prince of this world is overthrown.

And so I strongly urge you, not I so much as the love of Jesus Christ, to be nourished exclusively on Christian fare, abstaining from the alien food that is heresy. And this you will do if you are neither arrogant nor cut off from God, from Jesus Christ, and from the bishop and the teachings of the apostles. Whoever is within the sanctuary is pure; but whoever is not is unclean. That is to say, whoever acts apart from the bishop and the clergy and the deacons is not pure in his conscience. In writing this, it is not that I am aware of anything of the sort among you; I only wish to forewarn you, for you are my dearest children.

More information about St. Ignatius can be found at the New Advent Encyclodedia. His writings, along with other writings from his day can be found at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.