2 Timothy 1:4

‘Longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy,’

And while he prayed for him he longed to see Timothy, so that he might be filled with joy as a result, for he remembered fondly how distressed Timothy had been when they had parted This brings out how great a bond there was between them. Some consider that that parting might even have been at the time of Paul’s arrest. ‘Longing’ to see people is a regular Paulinism (compare Romans 1:11; Philippians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:6). He was a man of deep feelings. The verb is found six times in Paul, once in James, and once in 1 Peter.