This passage might, in the judgment of some, seem to teach that the relationship of children can be attained by a certain line of action; but it is not so. It is a question of moral conformity or suitability to the character and ways of our Father. We sometimes hear, in every-day life, the saying, "You would not be your father's son if you were to act in such a way." It is as though our Lord had said, If you want to be the sons of your heavenly Father, you must act in grace to all; for that is what He is doing. Again, in 2 Corinthians vi. we read, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Here, it is not a question of the secret relationship of children, formed by a divine operation, but the public acknowledgment of the position of sons [υἱούς] as the result of our separation from evil.[5] [5] Speaking in a general way, the word τέκνον, child, is a term of endearment; υἱός, son, of moral dignity. παῖς is either a child or a servant: νήπιος, a babe. It will be well for the reader to seize this important distinction; it is of great practical value. We do not become children by separation from the world, "for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." "As many as received Him, to them gave He power [or authority, ἐξουσίαν] to become children [τέκνα] of God, to them that believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (Gal. iii. 26; John i. 12, 13.) "Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth." (James i. 18.) We become children by new birth, which, thanks be to God, is a divine operation from first to last. What had we to do with our natural birth? Nothing. And what have we to do with our spiritual birth? Clearly nothing. But then we must remember that God can only identify Himself with, and publicly acknowledge those who, through grace, seek to walk in a way worthy of Him--a way befitting the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. If our ways are unlike Him, if we are mixed up with all sorts of wrong things, if we are unequally yoked together with unbelievers, how can we expect God to own us as His sons? We read, in Hebrews xi, of those who "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth," and who "declared plainly that they sought a country;" and of them we are told that "_God was not ashamed_ to be called their God." He could publicly identify Himself with them, and acknowledge them; He could own them as His.