SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:3
Doy gracias a Dios, al cual sirvo desde mis mayores con limpia conciencia, de que sin cesar tengo memoria de ti en mis oraciones noche y día;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 2 Timothy 1:3
Verse 3. Whom I serve from my forefathers] Being born a Jew, I was carefully educated in the knowledge of the true God, and the proper manner of worshipping him. With pure conscience] Ever aiming to please him, even in the time when through ignorance I persecuted the Church.
Without ceasing I have remembrance of thee] The apostle thanks God that he has constant remembrance of Tim. in his prayers. It is a very rare thing now in the Christian Church, that a man particularly thanks God that he is enabled to pray for OTHERS. And yet he that can do this most must have an increase of that brotherly love which the second greatest commandment of God requires: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. It is also a great blessing to be able to maintain the spirit of a pure friendship, especially through a considerable lapse of time and absence. He that can do so may well thank God that he is saved from that fickleness and unsteadiness of mind which are the bane of friendships, and the reproach of many once warm-hearted friends.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 3. I thank God , etc.] 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.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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 belove friends, that they may have peace with God the Father and Christ Jesu our Lord. Whatever good we do, God must have the glory. True believer have in every age the same religion as to substance. Their faith i unfeigned; it will stand the trial, and it dwells in them as a livin principle. Thus pious women may take encouragement from the success of Lois and Eunice with Timothy, who proved so excellent and useful minister. Some of the most worthy and valuable ministers the church of Christ has been favoured with, have had to bless God for earl religious impressions made upon their minds by the teaching of their mothers or other female relatives.
Greek Textus Receptus
χαριν 5485 εχω 2192 5719 τω 3588 θεω 2316 ω 3739 λατρευω 3000 5719 απο 575 προγονων 4269 εν 1722 καθαρα 2513 συνειδησει 4893 ως 5613 αδιαλειπτον 88 εχω 2192 5719 την 3588 περι 4012 σου 4675 μνειαν 3417 εν 1722 ταις 3588 δεησεσιν 1162 μου 3450 νυκτος 3571 και 2532 ημερας 2250
Vincent's NT Word Studies
3. I thank God (carin ecw tw qew). Lit. I have thanks to God. The phrase in Luke xvii. 9; Acts ii. 47; o P. unless 2 Cor. i. 15; 130 1 Timothy i. 12; Heb. xii. 28; 3rd John verse 4. Paul uses eujcaristw I give thanks (not in Pastorals) or eujloghtov oJ qeov blessed be God (not in Pastorals). The phrase carin ecw is a Latinism, habere gratiam, of which several are found in Pastorals.
I serve (latreuw). In Pastorals only here. Comp. Rom. i. 9, 25; Philip. iii. 3. Frequent in Hebrews. Originally, to serve for hire. In N.T. both of ritual service, as Heb. viii. 5; ix. 9; x. 2; xiii. 10; and of worship or service generally, as Luke i. 74; Rom. i. 9. Especially of the service rendered to God by the Israelites as his peculiar people, as Acts xxvi. 7. Comp. latreia service, Rom. ix. 4; Heb. ix. 1, 6. In LXX always of the service of God or of heathen deities.
From my forefathers (apo progonwn). Progonov, Past o . See on 1 Timothy v. 4. The phrase N.T.o . For the thought, comp. Acts xiv. 14; Philippians. iii. 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. i. 13,14.
With pure conscience (en kaqara suneidhsei). As 1 Tim. iii. 9. The phrase, Past o . Heb. ix. 14 has kaqariei thn sunidhsin hJmwn shall purge our conscience.
That without ceasing (wv adialeipton). The passage is much involved. Note
(1) that carin ecw tw qew 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 uJpomnhsin labwn when I received reminder verse 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.'Adialeipton unceasing, only here and Rom. ix. 2. Adialeiptwv, Rom. i. 9; 1 Thess. i. 3; ii. 13; v. 17.
I have remembrance (ecw thn mneian). The phrase once in Paul, 1 Thessalonians iii. 6. Commonly, mneian poioumai I make mention, Rom. i. 9; Eph. i. 16; 1 Thess. i. 2; Philemon 4. Night and day (nuktov kai hmerav). See 1 Tim. v. 5. The phrase in Paul, 1 Thess. ii. 9; iii. 10; 2 Thess. iii. 8. Const. with greatly desiring. 132
Robertson's NT Word Studies
1:3 {I thank} (carin ecw). "I have gratitude." As in #1Ti 1:12. Robinson cites examples of this phrase from the papyri. It occurs also in #Lu 17:9; Ac 2:47. caris in doxologies Paul uses (#1Co 15:57; 2:14; 8:16; 9:15; Ro 6:17; 7:25). His usual idiom is eucaristw (#1Co 1:4; Ro 1:8; Phm 1:4; Php 1:3) or eucaristoumen (#1Th 1:2; Col 1:3) or ou pauomai eucaristwn (#Eph 1:16) or eucaristein ofeilomen (#2Th 1:3). {Whom I serve from my forefathers} (hwi latreuw apo progonwn). The relative hwi is the dative case with latreuw (see #Ro 1:9 for this verb), progressive present (I have been serving). For progonwn (forefathers) see #1Ti 5:4. Paul claims a pious ancestry as in #Ac 24:14; Ac 26:5; Ga 2:14; Php 3:4-7. {In a pure conscience} (en kaqarai suneidesei). See #1Ti 1:5; Ac 23:1. {Unceasing} (adialeipton). Late and rare compound, in N.T. only here and #Ro 9:2 which see. The adverb adialeiptws is more frequent (in the papyri, literary _Koin_, #1Th 1:2; Ro 1:9). The adjective here is the predicate accusative, "how I hold the memory concerning thee unceasing." The use of adialeiptws (adverb) is a sort of epistolary formula (papyri, #1Th 1:2; 2:13; 5:17; Ro 1:9). {Remembrance} (mneian). Old word, in N.T. only Pauline (seven times, #1Th 1:2; Ro 1:9; Php 1:3).
