Our Bible passage today is from Paul's 2nd epistle (letter) to the people of Corinth. The epistles are a whole section of the Bible which collects these letters written by the Apostles to the early churches. Like any letters, they contain greetings, news, admonishment, advice, and closings. Frequently, the letter was entrusted to a good friend of the Apostle for delivery and in that case, the letter also served as a recommendation for the carrier (who might stay with the new community for a while).
Remember that these letters were written at a time before post offices or email existed... when you weren't sure that your letter would get through, or when you would be able to communicate again. So they tend to be long and more "complete" than typical communication today. They were also treasured more (perhaps for that very reason) and read in public over and over again. That's part of the reason they were saved and are still available to us to this day.
These letters also contained recommendations for people (see 1 Cor 16:10-11) so the people who received the letters knew they could trust the people the letters referred to. We still use letters of recommendation today for people seeking jobs or applying to schools (as a supervisor and youth leader, I write a surprising number of these each year).
This passage is saying that we are our own "letters of recommendation" because the Holy Spirit is inside us. Because the Spirit guides us in our pilgrimage, we will live our lives in a way that makes Christ visible to others... and that will serve as our "recommendation" to those we encounter on our journey.
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