To Timothy, my dear son. He was "true son" in the First Letter. There is a different feeling (empathy) in this Second Letter. Paul says more about love, and seems less confident about Timothy. Some think this implies that Paul had doubts about Timothy's ability to stand up under the problems which faced him. But I think it more probable that the reason for this difference is that Paul is under sentence of death as he writes, and he is aged. Since Paul knows he is being sacrificed (2 Timothy 4:6), he reaches out in love to Timothy, his dear son in the faith, whom he is about to leave behind in a very serious situation.

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Old Testament