Paper

Paper appears once in the text, as a writing material the elder sets aside in favor of a face-to-face visit.

A letter the writer would rather not send

At the end of his short letter, the elder pauses on the choice of medium: "Having many things to write to you⁺, I would not [write them] with paper and ink: but I hope to come to you⁺, and to speak face to face, that our joy may be made full" (2 John 1:12). The plural-you marker ⁺ shows he is addressing the whole community. Paper and ink are the available means of communication, but he names them only to decline them — the fuller joy depends on presence, not correspondence.