Publisher's Synopsis
You are our letter of recommendation, an open letter that all people know and read, - they see your faith and good life by faith, they will inquire, or they will directly know where you have such a change, and, inquiring, or knowing that all this has made our gospel be in you, they begin to reverence him, to look for an opportunity to hear it, so that we ourselves can taste its fruits. Such a widely spread mood through you is better than any letter of recommendation for us. As this epistle is written, the Apostle explains in verse 3 below, saying that they are the message of Christ written in the Holy Spirit; but what he says here: "it is written in our hearts," then the Apostle only wants to say this: everyone reads you as our message, but you are not alien to us, just as we are to you - we carry you in our hearts. So that no one would say: here we are a letter of recommendation for you, and you have thrown this letter openly - to be read by whoever wants to - the Apostle says this: let them read you there, but we cherish you no less than any other cherishes a letter of recommendation. He wraps his letter and safely puts it in his bosom, but we carry you in our hearts, you are written with us there. Where necessary, we ourselves read it to others, and from us people know about you no less than through our own vision....You gave me many reasons to praise you and boast about you. I always boast about others before you, but now you have added to the desire to hunt, and you have found a lot of meritorious things before the former meritorious qualities.
