Why did St. Ignatius of Antioch connect unity with a bishop to unity with Christ?

St. Ignatius of Antioch connected unity with a bishop to unity with Christ because he viewed the bishop as a representative of Christ to the local church. For Ignatius, the bishop serves as a concrete, earthly manifestation of the true bishop, Christ; therefore, maintaining unity with the bishop in both belief and worship is synonymous with maintaining union with Christ himself.1

This emphasis was rooted in Ignatius's concern for the doctrine that Christ is both human and divine. By insisting on siding with the bishop, Ignatius sought to preserve the integrity of the church’s structure, which he saw as a realization of the future life in Christ. Conversely, he believed that those who broke away from the bishop in a spirit of pride destroyed that essential union. Ultimately, for Ignatius, the bishop became the unique focus of unity, without whose authority he believed there could be no sacrament and no church.12