The paper examines Ignatius of Antioch’s warning statements in Eph. 16.1–18.1 to determine whether they indicate that Ignatius believed a Christian could be led away from genuine faith by what he considered to be excessively divergent beliefs. At first glance, Ignatius’s wording in this section appears to support such a conclusion: ‘Do not be anointed with the stench of the teaching of the ruler of this age, lest he take you captive and rob you of the life set before you’ (17.1). After examining the letter in its context, and in light of the entire middle recension, this paper questions the idea that Ignatius held to such a view. Several contextual factors support this thesis. Theological conclusions that do not recognize the potentially variegated nature of Ignatius’s audience run the risk of misinterpreting his statements. The fact that he warned of those who professed to be Christ’s but were not genuine suggest that the warnings may not have been referring to a loss of salvation. In addition, in the letter to the Ephesians, Ignatius details how the Ephesians were to differentiate between genuine and false faith. The letter, and this section in particular, is heavily dependent upon Paul’s 1 Corinthians. When the close verbal and contextual ties between Ign. Eph. 17.2–18.1 and 1 Cor 1:18–23 are examined, it becomes evident that Ignatius was warning against the possibility that at least a portion of professing Christianity was in danger of foolishly perishing because they were still unbelievers, who, despite their professions of faith and their association with the church, had yet to view the basic message of the cross as anything but an object of foolishness. Ignatius was warning the church that tares had begun to spring up among God’s wheat.