The term employed by the Apostle when writing to Timothy is not the huios of

dignified son-ship--Timothy was too shrinking, and the perils of the time were too great

for that to be fitting--neither is it pais--for although Timothy was still a comparatively

young man the Apostle wanted him to face the serious issues that would arise upon his

own death--but teknon, "my dear child".

By taking together the two epistles written to Timothy, another important fact

emerges. Let us see the way in which the word teknon is used in them.

Once again, it is useless to debate the question of this distribution of terms, for we are

faced with a fact, viz., that the Apostle uses this word teknon in these two epistles with

one object, to encourage Timothy in the good fight of faith.

While it has taken us some time both to set out the features and to acquaint ourselves

with the associated arguments, we must remember that, by Timothy, these things would

at least be sensed on perusal, if not actually seen. He would recall that in the earlier

epistle the endearing term "child" had preceded the exhortation to wage a good warfare

and, surrounded by fears and conscious of the growing presence of the enemy, the

repetition in II Tim. 2: 1 would strike him forcibly.

In the first epistle Timothy was encouraged by being reminded that the Lord had

marked him out for service by "prophecies that went before", and there can surely be no

encouragement to persevere like that which comes from the consciousness that one is

definitely called to a work, for the Lord's commands are always His enablings.

In the second epistle the Apostle does not so much call upon Timothy to rest upon the

fact of the Divine call, as to realize that, having received the call, and having been

endowed with the gifts necessary for performance of the work involved, there was also an

element of responsibility laid upon him; consequently in this epistle the Apostle calls

upon Timothy to stir up the gift of God, which was in him by the laying on of the

Apostle's hands. He reverts to this later in the chapter when he says, "That good thing

which was committed unto thee keep by the holy ghost which dwelleth in us"

(II Tim. 1: 14).  Here, once more, the special gift of "holy spirit" is intended, for the

words are without the article. All this the Apostle gathers up in II Tim. 2: 1, when he

says, "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus".

On many occasions the writers of Scripture not only positively state their line of

doctrine, but condescend to give also the negative side. For example, Eph. 4: 1 opens

with the positive "Walk worthy": the section closes with the negative "Walk not as the

Gentiles" (Eph. 4: 17). So in Phil. 3: 17-20, the Apostle points to his own example,

but also includes a warning concerning those whose bad example must be avoided.