The Polycarp Series in Full

This series on Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians was born out of a shared love that Tim and I have for the early church, but also a love for the church in our time. We believe that this letter has so much to teach us still, not least because Polycarp isn’t afraid to challenge us. Each of these articles is written in the form of a letter, either to Tim or myself. If you want to read more of Tim’s work, which I highly suggest you do, you can do so by heading to nuakh.uk.

The Series So Far

Part I

Part II - Prepare for Action

Tim Suffield - December 7, 2023

Dear Adsum

Thank you for your letter and for suggesting this little endeavour in the first place. I’m always encouraged by your joy in God. Every time we speak you ask how you can pray for me, which is a great kindness.

Your call to be prepared to suffer for the sake of Jesus is timely. I’m stirred to see chains as a crown.

Part III

Part IV - Money, Chastity, and Authority

Tim Suffield - December 21, 2023

Dear Adsum

Thank you for your letter. You are kinder than I deserve.

I greatly appreciate your challenge to be challenged. I don’t have as much of this in my life as I could do with, particularly not from brothers who are for me. I do have a close friend who texts me when my writing, or preaching, is too close to the bone, but I’m sure I need more. I’d love for you to become one of them.

As to your question: am I seeking to accurately and steadfastly preach the word of truth? I dearly hope so. I’ve often wondered if the nature of preaching is seeking without arriving. The goal is to speak the words of God, and it’s lofty.

Part V

Part VI - 5 Instructions for Elders

Tim Suffield - January 25, 2024

Dear Adsum,

This is in some ways a strange one for me to write to you. I am a presbyter (Pastor, or Elder, in our modern parlance) and you aren’t. I think it’s true, nevertheless, that the Church’s Elders are not ‘super-Christians’ but just ‘faithful Christians’ so we can all aspire to their requirements.

Polycarp lists five categories of things that elders should be. His context is a church where elders have not always been these things. Firstly, we are meant to be ‘dispensers of grace,’ when he calls elders to be compassionate and merciful to all.

I’m still learning this. I’ve served as a Pastor in two churches for around ten years now, which makes me still ‘inexperienced,’ but I was appointed much too young with much too much arrogance—in exactly the sort of church environment you alluded to in your last letter. I was not a man of compassion or mercy.

Thank the Lord that he broke me.

Part VII

Part VIII - Hold on to Hope

Tim Suffield - February 8, 2024

Hope is a tricky thing. I think we can misunderstand how it works. Polycarp tells them to ‘persevere in hope,’ to keep going in hoping. Hope is a thing that you do, and that you have to keep on doing. Paul says something very similar in the opening lines of 1 Thessalonians, where faith was to be worked at, love laboured at, and hope persevered in. These virtues need verbs.

I think we often get that backwards—with faith and love too—imagining that hope is an emotion that we work up either through an intensity of prayer or some sort of dramatic worship experience. Or, perhaps, we simply decide we’re not a very hopeful person. I have a tendency towards the cynical, but thankfully that doesn’t mean I can’t hope because hope is a thing we do. It’s an action.

Part IX

Part X - Stand Fast

Tim Suffield - February 29, 2024

Dear Adsum

Thank you for your last letter, particularly your guidance to ask God for patience in the midst of trials. Though, I must admit, this is a “thanks, I hate it” sort of thank you. Who wants more patience? People who want to be more like Jesus.

I am not a patient man. My wife is much more patient than me, as are many others I know. I think of the dear patience of a close friend whose debilitating illness has not been healed by the Lord and his desire to keep pressing in to follow Jesus anyway. It’s an inspiration to me.

Of course, I don’t think he’ll recognise himself in that sentence, because I don’t think he thinks he’s a patient man.

Part XII - Learning to be Angry Well

Tim Suffield - March 14, 2024

Dear Adsum

Thank you for your last letter, sobering though it was. I am particularly struck by your desire to react as Christians to those leaders who fall; we should restore them. Not, in the vast majority of cases, to the pastorate or to other prominence, but to the church in line with their repentance.

I’ve been reflecting on my own desires for ‘justice’ or ‘revenge’ that have little to do with the gospel. Equally, in most of the cases I’ve had the misfortune of seeing up close, as well as many I watched from a distance, repentance seems slow to come.

Your careful love for Jesus’ church is a hallmark of your writing; it’s always an encouragement to me.

Part XIV - Final Words

Tim Suffield - March 28, 2024

…

I’ve been thinking about how to summarise the letter and our writing on it. The nature of summaries is that they miss things out, but in the context of leadership failure I think Polycarp would commend three things to his readers.

Firstly, in the face of others not living like Christians, live like Christians.

Secondly, we should teach others to live like Christians too.

Thirdly, the most important thing is our virtue or character.

Easy to say, difficult to do, but worth pursuing in all things. Would you pray for me that these three charges would characterise my own life?

…