Ignatius — Epistle to the Ephesians 3
I am not giving you orders as though I were somebody. I am in chains for the Name, yes, but I have not yet been made perfect in Jesus Christ. I am only now beginning to be a disciple, and I speak to you as my fellow students. It is I who needed you to anoint me like an athlete for the contest, with faith, with warning, with endurance, with patience.
But love will not let me keep quiet about you. So I have stepped forward first to urge you: run in step with the mind of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the Father's mind. In the same way the bishops, appointed to the farthest ends of the earth, are in the mind of Jesus Christ.
Greek
Οὐ διατάσσομαι ὑμῖν ὡς ὤν τις. εἰ γὰρ καὶ δέδεμαι ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι, οὔπω ἀπήρτισμαι ἐν Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ: νῦν γὰρ ἀρχὴν ἔχω τοῦ μαθητεύεσθαι, καὶ προσλαλῶ ὑμῖν ὡς συνδιδασκαλίταις μου. ἐμὲ γὰρ ἔδει ὑφ̓ ὑμῶν ὑπαλειφθῆναι πίστει, νουθεσίᾳ, ὑπομονῇ, μακροθυμίᾳ.
ἀλλ’ ἐπεὶ ἡ ἀγάπη οὐκ ἐᾷ με σιωπᾶν περὶ ὑμῶν, διὰ τοῦτο προέλαβον παρακαλεῖν ὑμᾶς, ὅπως συντρέχητε τῇ γνώμῃ τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ γὰρ Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, τὸ ἀδιάκριτον ἡμῶν ζῆν, τοῦ πατρὸς ἡ γνώμη, ὡς καὶ οἱ ἐπίσκοποι, οἱ κατὰ τὰ πέρατα ὁρισθέντες, ἐν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ γνώμῃ εἰσίν.