To the Clergy of Beroea

I see that I have good reason to feel warmly toward your reverences, for your kind letter has assured me that my affection is returned. And I have many reasons for this affection of mine toward you. First of all, your father, that great and apostolic man, was my father too. Second, I regard the truly devout bishop who now governs your church as I would a brother, both in blood and in sympathy. Third, there is the close neighborhood of our cities, and fourth, our frequent dealings with one another, which naturally give birth to friendship and make it grow once it is born. If you like, I will name a fifth as well: we are as closely joined to you as the tongue is to the ears, the one speaking and the others receiving what is spoken. For you listen most gladly to my words, and I am delighted to let my little drop fall on you. [a]

But the crowning touch of our union is our harmony in the faith: our refusal to accept any counterfeit doctrines, and our keeping of the ancient and apostolic teaching, which was brought to you by gray-haired wisdom and nourished by the hard toil of virtue. So I beg you to take still greater care of the flock, to keep it unharmed for the Shepherd, and to say boldly the famous words of the patriarch: “What was torn by wild beasts I did not offer to you.”