2 Timothy 1:3

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) I thank God.—The exact reference of these words of thankfulness on the part of St. Paul has been the subject of much argument. Although the sense is a little obscured by the long parenthesis which intervenes, it seems clear that St. Paul’s expression of thankfulness was for his remembrance of the unfeigned faith of Timothy and Lois and Eunice (see 2Timothy 1:5). The whole passage might be written thus, “I thank God, whom I serve with the devotion of my forefathers with a pure conscience (as it happens that I have thee uppermost in my thought and prayers night and day, longing to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, in order that I may be filled with joy), when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith which is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice,” &c.

Whom I serve from my forefathers.—That is, with the devotion and love I have inherited as a sacred family tradition. St. Paul was here referring, not to the great forefathers of the Jewish race—Abraham, Isaac, and the patriarchs—but to the members of his own family, who, he states, were religious, faithful persons. Van Oosterzee strangely concludes: “Dass Paulus diese historische kontinuität der wahren Gottesverehrung in seinem geschlecht um so höher schätzt, da er selbst stirbt, ohne kinder zu hinterlassen!”

With pure conscience.—Literally, in pure conscience. The spiritual sphere in which St. Paul, as a Jew first, then as a Christian, served God. (See Notes on 1Timothy 1:5.)

That without ceasing I have remembrance of thee.—Better rendered, as unceasing is the remembrance which . . . This long parenthetical sentence leads up to the point for which St. Paul was so deeply thankful to God; namely, the true faith of Timothy himself. These unstudied words tell us something of the inner life of such a one as St. Paul, how ceaselessly, unweariedly he prayed, night as well as day. The object, too, of those constant prayers of St. Paul was not St. Paul but Timothy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:1-5 The promise of eternal life to believers in Christ Jesus, is the leading subject of ministers who are employed according to the will of God. The blessings here named, are the best we can ask for our beloved friends, that they may have peace with God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Whatever good we do, God must have the glory. True believers have in every age the same religion as to substance. Their faith is unfeigned; it will stand the trial, and it dwells in them as a living principle. Thus pious women may take encouragement from the success of Lois and Eunice with Timothy, who proved so excellent and useful a minister. Some of the most worthy and valuable ministers the church of Christ has been favoured with, have had to bless God for early religious impressions made upon their minds by the teaching of their mothers or other female relatives.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers - Paul reckoned among his forefathers the patriarchs and the holy men of former times, as being of the same nation with himself, though it may be that he also included his more immediate ancestors, who, for anything known to the contrary, may have been distinguished examples of piety. His own parents, it is certain, took care that he should be trained up in the ways of religion; compare the Philippians 3:4-5 notes; Acts 26:4-5. The phrase "from my forefathers," probably means, after the example of my ancestors. He worshipped the same God; he held substantially the same truths; he had the same hope of the resurrection and of immortality; he trusted to the same Saviour having come, on whom they relied as about to come. His was not, therefore, a different religion from theirs; it was the same religion carried out and perfected. The religion of the Old Testament and the New is essentially the same; see the notes at Acts 23:6.

With pure conscience - see the notes at Acts 23:1.

That without ceasing - compare the Romans 12:12 note; 1 Thessalonians 5:17 note.

I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day - see the notes at Philippians 1:3-4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. I thank—Greek, "I feel gratitude to God."

whom I serve from my forefathers—whom I serve (Ro 1:9) as did my forefathers. He does not mean to put on the same footing the Jewish and Christian service of God; but simply to assert his own conscientious service of God as he had received it from his progenitors (not Abraham, Isaac, &c., whom he calls "the fathers," not "progenitors" as the Greek is here; Ro 9:5). The memory of those who had gone before to whom he is about to be gathered, is now, on the eve of death, pleasant to him; hence also, he calls to mind the faith of the mother and grandmother of Timothy; as he walks in the faith of his forefathers (Ac 23:1; 24:14; 26:6, 7; 28:20), so Timothy should persevere firmly in the faith of his parent and grandparent. Not only Paul, but the Jews who reject Christ, forsake the faith of their forefathers, who looked for Christ; when they accept Him, the hearts of the children shall only be returning to the faith of their forefathers (Mal 4:6; Lu 1:17; Ro 11:23, 24, 28). Probably Paul had, in his recent defense, dwelt on this topic, namely, that he was, in being a Christian, only following his hereditary faith.

that … I have remembrance of thee—"how unceasing I make my mention concerning thee" (compare Phm 4). The cause of Paul's feeling thankful is, not that he remembers Timothy unceasingly in his prayers, but for what Timothy is in faith (2Ti 1:5) and graces; compare Ro 1:8, 9, from which supply the elliptical sentence thus, "I thank God (for thee, for God is my witness) whom I serve … that (or how) without ceasing I have remembrance (or make mention) of thee," &c.

night and day—(See on [2492]1Ti 5:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Paul here by his forefathers either intends his immediate parents, or Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for he served the same God whom they served.

But how did Paul from his forefathers serve God with pure conscience, who was a native Jew, and zealous in that religion, in opposition to the faith of the gospel, which alone purifieth the heart? Acts 15:9.

Solution. A pure conscience seemeth here to signify the same with Philippians 3:6, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Paul was strict to the rules of that religion which he professed, though that religion was not that which universally purifieth the heart. Or else his meaning is, that he at this time served that God who was the God of his forefathers, with a pure conscience.

That without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day: he either thanketh God on the behalf of Timothy for his gifts and graces, or else he blesseth God, that had put it into his heart daily to remember Timothy in his prayers, Philemon 1:4; by which expression he both lets us know the mutual duty of Christians to pray one for another, and also that when we find any inclinations to do our duty, we ought to acknowledge them to God, being not of ourselves sufficient to one good thought.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

I thank God,.... After the inscription and salutation follows the preface to the epistle; which contains a thanksgiving to God upon Timothy's account, and has a tendency to engage his attention to what he was about to write to him in the body of the epistle. God is the object of praise and thanksgiving, both as the God of nature and providence, and as the God of all grace; for every good thing comes from him, and therefore he ought to have the glory of it; nor should any glory, as though they had not received it: and he is here described, as follows,

whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience; the apostle served God in the precepts of the law, as in the hands of Christ, and as written upon his heart by the Spirit of God, in which he delighted after the inward man, and which he served with his regenerated mind; and also in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, in which he was very diligent and laborious, faithful and successful: and this God, whom he served, was the God of his "forefathers", of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Benjamin, of whose tribe he was, and also of his more immediate ancestors. The Ethiopic version renders it, "from my original"; for though he preached the Gospel of Christ, and asserted the abrogation of the ceremonial law, yet he worshipped the one, true, and living God, the God of Israel, and was not an apostate from the true religion, as his enemies would insinuate: and this service of his was performed with a "pure conscience": every man has a conscience, but the conscience of every natural man is defiled with sin; and that is only a pure one, which is sprinkled and purged with the blood of Christ; and whereby a person is only fitted to serve the living God, without the incumbrance of dead works, and slavish fear, and with faith and cheerfulness; and such a conscience the apostle had, and with such an one he served God. For this refers not to his serving of God, and to his conscience, while a Pharisee and a persecutor; for however moral was his conduct and conversation then, and with what sincerity and uprightness soever he behaved, his conscience was not a pure one. He goes on to observe what he thanked God for,

that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; that God had laid him upon his heart, and that he had such reason to remember him at the throne of grace continually. We learn from hence, that the apostle prayed constantly night and day; and if so great a man as he stood in need of continual prayer, much more we; and that in his prayers he was not unmindful of his friends, though at a distance from him; and in both these he is to be imitated: it becomes us to pray without ceasing: to pray always, and not faint and give out, to pray every day and night; and to pray for others as well as for ourselves, for all the saints, yea, for our enemies, as well as for our friends.

Geneva Study Bible

{1} I thank God, whom I serve from my {b} forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

(1) The purpose that he aims at in this epistle is to confirm Timothy to continue constantly and bravely even to the end. And he sets first before him the great good will he has for him, and then reckons up the excellent gifts which God would as it were have to be in Timothy by inheritance, and his ancestors, which might so much the more make him bound to God.

(b) From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for he speaks not of Pharisaism, but of Christianity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Timothy 1:3. Χάριν ἔχω τῷ Θεῷ] As in several other epistles, Paul begins here with a thanksgiving to God,—only he usually says εὐχαριστῶ or εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεός. The expression is only in 1 Timothy 1:12 (elsewhere in the N. T. Luke 17:9; Hebrews 12:28). To τῷ Θεῷ there is next attached the relative clause: ᾧ λατρεύω ἀπὸ προγόνων ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει, which is added because the apostle wishes to remind Timothy of his πρόγονοι, viz. his grandmother and mother,—not to bring into prominence a relationship different from the apostle’s own (Hofmann), but one corresponding with his own.

ἀπὸ προγόνων is not equivalent to ἀπὸ βρέφους, 2 Timothy 3:15; it means that the apostle serves God “in the manner handed down by his progenitors, as they had done” (Buttmann, p. 277), or that the service of the πρόγονοι, i.e. not the ancestors of the Jewish people (Heydenreich and others), but the progenitors of the apostle himself (so most expositors), is continued in him, and denotes therefore “the continuity of the true honouring of God by Judaism” (de Wette). Otto says that the expression is not to be referred to the education (Flatt) or disposition (Winer, p. 349 [E. T. p. 465]; van Oosterzee, Wiesinger), but to the ancestral mode of worship; but, in reply, it is to be observed, that on account of ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει the reference to disposition is by no means to be considered as excluded.[1] The apostle, by his conversion to Christianity, did not interrupt his connection with the λατρεύειν of his ancestors, because it was a necessary condition of the new faith to honour the God of revelation whom the Jews served. This utterance regarding the apostle himself, and particularly the words ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδ., are not in contradiction with 1 Timothy 1:13 and similar passages, since the apostle, even while he was zealous for the law, served the God of his fathers ἐν καθ. συνειδ., as little then as afterwards falsifying the revealed word with arbitrary fictions, which was done by the heretics; comp. Acts 23:1; Acts 24:14 ff. Hofmann is wrong in breaking up the inner relation of these words, referring λατρεύω only to ἀπὸ προγόνων, and not also ἐν καθ. συνειδήσει, which he refers only to the apostle. This he does, although the structure of the sentence is most decidedly against such a distribution of the references.

On ἐν καθ. συνειδ., comp. 1 Timothy 1:5.[2]

ὡς ἀδιάλειπτον κ.τ.λ.] ὡς does not give the reason of thanksgiving, as Chrysostom explains it: εὐχαριστῶ τῷ Θεῷ, ὅτι μέμνημαί σου, φησὶν, οὕτω σὲ φιλῶ, and as Luther translates: “that I,” etc. Against this there is not only the word ὡς, but also the sense. The apostle, in his giving of thanks to God, often indeed recalls his μνεία of those to whom he writes (Romans 1:9; Php 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; Philemon 1:4), but he never points them out as the ground of his thanksgiving. Otto, while granting that there are objections to it, wishes to take ὡς as the same as ὅτι, and to regard it as a particle of the reason, equivalent to ὅτι οὕτως, which, however, cannot be justified from usage.[3] Just as little should we take Ὡς adverbially with ἈΔΙΑΛ. Mack: “I thank God, etc.… I keep right continually,” etc.

A subordinate clause begins with Ὡς, which, however, does not mean: “since, quippe, siquidem” (Heydenreich, Flatt, Matthies: “in so far”), “so often” (Calvin: “quoties tui recordor in precibus meis, id autem facio continenter, simul etiam de te gratias ago”), but expresses the parallel relation of the subordinate clause to the principal one, and should be translated by “as” (Wiesinger, van Oosterzee); in Galatians 6:10, Ὡς has a very similar meaning. The sense accordingly is: “I thank God, as I am continually mindful of thee in my prayers,” so that already in the subordinate clause it is indicated that the thanksgiving to God refers to Timothy. In Romans 1:9, ὡς stands in quite another connection, which makes de Wette’s objection all the less justifiable, that here it has been taken from that passage.

ἈΔΙΆΛΕΙΠΤΟΝ ἜΧΩ ΤῊΝ ΠΕΡΊ ΣΟΥ ΜΝΕΊΑΝ] De Wette arbitrarily maintains that Paul would have said: ἈΔΙΑΛΕΊΠΤΩς ΜΝΕΊΑΝ ΣΟΥ ΠΟΙΟῦΜΑΙ. Though Paul does so express himself in Romans 1:9 (and similarly Ephesians 1:16), it does not, however, follow that he might not use another form of expression in another epistle, especially since the connection of ΜΝΕΊΑΝ with ἜΧΕΙΝ is by no means unusual with him; comp. 1 Thessalonians 3:6.

ἈΔΙΆΛΕΙΠΤΟΝ stands first for emphasis. There is nothing strange here in ΜΝΕΊΑ being joined with ΠΕΡΊ, since ΜΝᾶΣΘΑΙ takes that construction even in the classics; comp. Herod. i. 36; Plato, Lach. p. 181 A; Xenophon, Cyrop. i. 6. 12; so, too, with μνημονεύειν, Hebrews 11:22.

ἘΝ ΤΑῖς ΔΕΉΣΕΣΊ ΜΟΥ ΝΥΚΤῸς ΚΑῚ ἩΜΈΡΑς] ΤΑῖς is not to be supplied before ΝΥΚΤΌς, since the last words are not to be taken with ΔΕΉΣΕΣΙ, but either with ἈΔΙΑΛ. ἜΧΩ Κ.Τ.Λ. (Wiesinger, van Oosterzee) or with what follows (Matthies, Plitt, Hofmann). The first construction is preferable, because the chief emphasis is laid on the preceding thought, the ἘΠΙΠΟΘῶΝ being made subsidiary; besides, the apostle had no particular reason for directing attention to the uninterrupted duration of his longing for Timothy as the source of his unceasing prayer. The assertion, that νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας is superfluous on account of the previous ἈΔΙΆΛΕΙΠΤΟΝ, is not to the point; comp. Acts 26:7, where the same words are added with ἘΝ ἘΚΤΕΝΕΊᾼ.

[1] Had the apostle not been conscious that his ancestors had served God ἐν καθ. συνειδ., he would not have expressed himself as he does here.

[2] Otto rightly: “With Paul συνείδησις is purely the self-consciousness of the subject. The consciousness is pure, when it is conscious of no impure strivings. Impurity appears whenever any one, under the pretence of serving God, follows after his own selfish purposes.” There is no ground for Hofmann’s assertion, that the καθ. συνείδησις is only “a conscience free from consciousness of guilt, such as only that man can have who is conscious of the forgiveness of his sins.”

[3] The particle ὡς does sometimes occur in classic Greek in such a way that it is resolvable into ὅτε οὕτως; but, as is shown in the very nature of the word, only in cases when the sentence beginning with ὡς expresses something surprising, something exciting astonishment, in particular, therefore, after the verb θαυμάζω. It follows, as Pape says, s.v., that “in such cases we may translate it with the simple how.” That such is the case, is proved by all the quotations brought together by Otto (p. 301) from the Greek classics. It is therefore entirely erroneous for Otto to say quite generally that “it is in the manner of genuine Greek to contract the causal ὅτι with the following οὕτως into the adverbial pronoun ὡς.” Only if the ἀδιάλειπτον ἔχω τὴν περὶ σοῦ μνείαν occurred to the apostle as something strange, astonishing, could ὡς be explained here by ὅτι οὕτως.—Besides, it is inaccurate for Otto to ascribe to ὡς a causal signification, and then call the clause beginning with it an objective clause.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Timothy 1:3-7. I know that your weak point is deficiency in moral courage. Be braced, therefore, by the assurance that I am constantly thinking with thankfulness and prayer about your genuine and inborn faith; and by the fact that the gift of the Holy Spirit which you received at ordination was that of power and love and discipline.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. whom I serve … with pure conscience] The verb ‘serve’ with its noun ‘service’ was specially used to render the worship of Jehovah by the covenant people; it is the same as in St Paul’s profession before Felix, Acts 24:14, ‘after the way which they call a sect so serve I the God of our fathers,’ and again before Agrippa, Acts 26:7. The service of the old covenant was true and real service so long as it was with a pure conscience and until the conscience was enlightened. Hence the force of the verb with its qualifying clauses in the very similar passage, Romans 1:9, ‘God is my witness whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son.’ The old service of sacrifice and ceremonial (‘the giving of the law and the service,’ Romans 9:4) has given place to the ‘living sacrifice, the reasonable or spiritual service,’ Romans 12:1. Cf. Php 3:3.

that without ceasing I have remembrance] A.V. follows the Vulg. which has ‘quod habeam tui memoriam.’ R.V. better, ‘how unceasing is my remembrance,’ the construction being similar to Romans 1:9, ‘God is my witness how unceasing.’ It is objected to this that ‘the importunity of Paul’s prayers for Timothy could not have been the occasion of his solemn thanksgiving to God.’ But though the formal construction may seem to limit the object of the thanks, yet it is really more in accord with St Paul’s manner of thought and speech to take all the clauses to the end of 2 Timothy 1:5 as making up his thanksgiving. The structure of the chapter is evidently, ‘I am thy dear father in life and work; I am very thankful to have a dear son in my desolateness—to remember thee at all hours, and most and best in my prayers,—to count the days and nights till I shall see thee—to think of thy tears when I left thee—and so to hope for refreshing news of thy true and trusty faith, learnt like my own, at a mother’s knee. By all this that is between us—and yet more, by that gift of gifts to thee, the Grace of Orders, when these hands of mine were laid upon thy head, and my work was thine, O Timothy my son, play the man, the minister; the man of God, God’s minister; with me and after me.’

in my prayers] More precisely, in my supplications. See note on 1 Timothy 2:1, from which we see that this word indicates a felt ‘want’ and a petition for its supply. St Paul sorely wanted strength and support for the last struggle, and Timothy could help him; so he prayed, not in Timothys behalf so much as for Timothy to come in his behalf.

night and day] Variously taken, with ‘my prayers,’ as A.V., or with ‘longing to see thee’ (as R.V.). The phrase in the accusative, Luke 2:37, closes the sentence; in the genitive, as here, and 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:10, introduces it; in these latter passages the participles equally with ‘longing’ require emphasis and do not lose it by ‘night and day’ preceding; so that Dean Alford’s objection to following these here as precedent seems needless. ‘Greatly desiring’ seems a fair rendering of the verb alone, the preposition indicating in this case not ‘greatly,’ but ‘towards,’ ‘yearning towards.’ Render the clause night and day longing to see thee.

3–7. Timothy’s inheritance of Personal Faith and Ministerial Gifts a double ground of Appeal

From what St Paul was himself follows now the first appeal to Timothy, based on his affectionate remembrance of the son’s likeness to his spiritual father, (1) in the personal faith forged with links of natural piety, (2) in the ministerial gift transmitted as a spiritual heritage. With his usual fine tact St Paul hints a connexion between his own and Timothy’s early experiences, to emphasize his depth of feeling towards him.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Timothy 1:3. Χάριν ἔχω, I feel thankful) Drawing very near to his martyrdom, still he gives thanks. Paul feels thankful to God for the faith bestowed on Timothy, 2 Timothy 1:5. Therefore from ὡς ἀδιάλειπτον, as [not that, as Engl. Vers.] without ceasing, to χαρᾶς πληρωθῶ, I might be filled with joy, is put as a parenthesis, to explain those things which follow, ὑπόμνησιν λαμβάνων, calling to (or rather, receiving a) remembrance, etc.: for ὡς, even as, inasmuch as, is an explanatory particle.—ᾧ λατρεύω, whom I serve) Romans 1:9, note.—ἀπὸ προγόνων, from the [our] [not my, as Engl. Vers.] forefathers) Paul means the forefathers; not Abraham, etc., whom he calls τοὺς πατέρας, the fathers [Romans 9:5], never προγόνους, forefathers or ancestors, but the immediate progenitors; and signifies their long continuance in the true religion all along from an earlier age of mankind, whether Paul’s ancestors were themselves godly men, which is highly probable, or not; for he does not add, my. The memory of those who have gone before, and to whom he is being [i.e. about to be] gathered, delights him, now that he is prepared to die. He even calls to remembrance Timothy’s grandmother and mother, 2 Timothy 1:5. This epistle especially has something of the ripeness of old age, mild and good-natured [conciliatory].

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - In a pure for with pure, A.V.; how unceasing for that without ceasing, A.V.; is my remembrance for I have remembrance, A.V.; supplications for prayers, A.V. For whom I serve from my fathers in a pure conscience, comp. Acts 23:1. How unceasing, etc. The construction of the sentence which follows is difficult and ambiguous. For what does the apostle give thanks to God? The answer to this question will give the clue to the explanation. The only thing mentioned in the context which seer, s a proper subject of thanksgiving is that which is named in ver. 5, viz. the "unfeigned faith" that was in Timothy. That this was a proper subject of thanksgiving we learn from Ephesians 1:15, where St. Paul writes that, having heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus, he ceased not to give thanks for then-J, making mention of them in his prayers (see, too, 1 Thessalonians 1:2). Assuming, then, that this was the subject of his thanksgiving, we notice especially the reading of the R.T., λαβών, "having received," and the note of Bengel that ὑπόμνησιν λαμβάνειν means to be reminded of any one by another, as distinguished from ἀνάμνησιν, which is used when any one comes to your recollection without external prompting; both which fall in with our previous conclusion. And we get for the main sentence the satisfactory meaning: "I give thanks to God that I have received (or, because I have received) a most pleasant reminder (from some letter or visitor to which he does not further allude) of your unfeigned faith," etc, The main sentence clearly is: "I thank God... having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee." The intermediate words are, in Paul's manner, parenthetical and explanatory. Being about to say that it was at some special remembrance of Timothy's faith that he gave thanks, the thought arose in his mind that there was a continual remembrance of him day and night in his prayers; that he was ever thinking of him, longing to see him, and to have the tears shed at their parting turned into joy at their meeting again. And so he interposes this thought, and prefaces it with ὡς - not surely, "how," as in the R.V., but in the sense of καθώς, "as," "just as." And so the whole passage comes out: "Just as I have an unceasing remembrance of you in my prayers, day and night, longing to see you, that the tears which I remember you shed at our parting may be turned into joy, so do I give special thanks to God on the remembrance of your faith." 2 Timothy 1:3

Vincent's Word Studies

I thank God (χάριν ἔχω τῷ θεῷ)

Lit. I have thanks to God. The phrase in Luke 17:9; Acts 2:47; oP. unless 2 Corinthians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 12:28; 3 John 1:4. Paul uses εὐχαριστῶ I give thanks (not in Pastorals) or εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός blessed be God (not in Pastorals). The phrase χάριν ἔχω is a Latinism, habere gratiam, of which several are found in Pastorals.

I serve (λατρεύω)

In Pastorals only here. Comp. Romans 1:9, Romans 1:25; Philippians 3:3. Frequent in Hebrews. Originally, to serve for hire. In N.T. both of ritual service, as Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:9; Hebrews 10:2; Hebrews 13:10; and of worship or service generally, as Luke 1:74; Romans 1:9. Especially of the service rendered to God by the Israelites as his peculiar people, as Acts 26:7. Comp. λατρεία service, Romans 9:4; Hebrews 9:1, Hebrews 9:6. In lxx always of the service of God or of heathen deities.

From my forefathers (ἀπὸ προγόνων)

Πρόγονος, Pasto. See on 1 Timothy 5:4. The phrase N.T.o. For the thought, comp. Acts 14:14; Philippians 3:5. He means, in the spirit and with the principles inherited from his fathers. Comp. the sharp distinction between the two periods of Paul's life, Galatians 1:13, Galatians 1:14.

With pure conscience (ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει)

As 1 Timothy 3:9. The phrase, Pasto. Hebrews 9:14 has καθαριεῖ τὴν συνίδησιν ἡμῶν shall purge our conscience.

That without ceasing (ὡς ἀδιάλειπτον)

The passage is much involved. Note (1) that χάριν ἔχω τῷ θεῷ I thank God must have an object. (2) That object cannot be that he unceasingly remembers Timothy in his prayers. (3) That object, though remote, is ὑπόμνησιν λαβὼν when I received reminder (2 Timothy 1:5). He thanks God as he is reminded of the faith of Timothy's ancestors and of Timothy himself. Rend. freely, "I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, as there goes along with my prayers an unceasing remembrance of thee, and a daily and nightly longing, as I recall thy tears, to see thee, that I may be filled with joy - I thank God, I say, for that I have been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee," etc. Ἀδιάλειπτον unceasing, only here and Romans 9:2. Ἁδιαλείπτως, Romans 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

I have remembrance (ἔχω τὴν μνείαν)

The phrase once in Paul, 1 Thessalonians 3:6. Commonly, μνείαν ποιοῦμαι I make mention, Romans 1:9; Ephesians 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; Plm 1:4.

Night and day (νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας)

See 1 Timothy 5:5. The phrase in Paul, 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8. Const. with greatly desiring.