What is the context?
The elder has more to say, but he hopes to visit and speak face to face so that their shared joy may be complete. The letter gives what is needed now while looking toward a fuller personal conversation.
The closing greeting comes from the children of the elect sister. It echoes the opening address and ends the letter with a relationship between the people sending and receiving it.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the greeting in terms of an actual sister’s children; the USCCB note reads it as a greeting between churches. Both recognize the desire for personal conversation. Neither the wording here nor the reference to paper and ink states that persecution is the reason for postponing the rest.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.