I do not want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters,

For even if I made you sad by my letter, I do not regret having written it (even though I did regret it, for I see that my letter made you sad, though only for a short time).

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone,

because some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is weak and his speech is of no account.”

Let such a person consider this: What we say by letters when we are absent, we also are in actions when we are present.

revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.