Calling Them Son

12.16.11

1 Peter 5.13 13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. NIV

There are two in Scripture that are recorded as calling someone, son (in the faith that is): Paul and Peter. Paul calls Timothy and Titus, son; and Peter calls Mark, son. These are more than just terms of endearment; they called them son because in the truest sense that’s what they were: spiritual children.

In ancient times, one of the most important things to men was to have children and in particular, sons. One of the most significant customs was pass along one’s life to his son (or sons as the case may be.) I think we’ve lost a great deal of that here in the west. I think we take children for granted and don’t do enough to share what we’re made of with them. Our children will see soon enough what we’re made of as a spectator (or a recipient), but not as a partner.

We’re always told to be careful in how soon and how much we should let our children become our friends – in other words, not giving them too much too soon. We like to be called dad, or pops, or whatever; but we don’t want to fracture our authority before it’s time. Fracturing will come soon enough. Until that point though, we should want to use our authority to build our children up, not tear them down. Not easy, but do-able.

Paul and Peter poured their lives into their spiritual children. Both men saw the value in doing so and didn’t miss an opportunity to get their spiritual children involved at the deepest levels as soon as possible. Both Paul and Peter knew their lives were going to expire (at some point) and knew at a profound level how important it was to raise up from their spiritual children, spiritual fathers.

Mark was Peter’ spiritual son and was extremely valuable to Peter. It is thought that the Gospel of Mark was actually Peter’s work dictated to Mark (or maybe Mark’s writings of what he learned from Peter’s testimony). Mark himself is visible in glimpses in Paul’s, Peter’s, and Luke’s writings. The beauty of the New Testament is the span of time it covers and the lives of people it details. Mark was thought to be unreliable by Paul at first (Cf. Acts 15.36 ff.) but very important to him later in life (Colossians 4.10). Peter alludes to the same thing in his first epistle.

Spiritual sons, like biological sons, need to be nurtured and helped along the way. There needs to be patience and praise in order to help them. But the bottom line is what they will learn from us. They will watch and see how we handle things and try to emulate some of it because of our influence. They might pick up a bad habit or two from us; that’s the risk. But being with them and including them in as much as we can, will have an impact on their lives to the point that we can say later in life things like: She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son (_______________).

Father, use me to influence the lives of my sons for Your Kingdom regardless of what kind they are – amen.