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;

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience, how unceasing is my remembrance of thee in my supplications, night and day

I give thanks to God, whom I serve from my forefathers with a pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have a remembrance of thee in my prayers, night and day.

I am thankful to God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, how unceasingly I have the remembrance of thee in my supplications night and day,

I am thankful to God, whom I serve from progenitors in a pure conscience, that unceasingly I have remembrance concerning thee in my supplications night and day,

I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience - as my forefathers did - that night and day I unceasingly remember you in my prayers,

I give praise to God, whose servant I have been, with a heart free from sin, from the time of my fathers, because in my prayers at all times the thought of you is with me, night and day

I give thanks to God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. For without ceasing I hold the remembrance of you in my prayers, night and day,

I am thankful to God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, when I remember you, as I never fail to do, in my prayers – night and day alike,

I give thanks The meaning usually assigned to these words is, that Paul "gives thanks to God," and next assigns the cause or ground of thanksgiving; namely, that he is unceasingly mindful of Timothy. But let my readers consider whether the following sense do not suit equally well and even better: "Whenever I remember thee in my prayers, (and I do so continually,) I also give thanks concerning thee;" for the particle hos most frequently has that meaning; [1] and, indeed, any meaning that can be drawn from a different translation is exceedingly meager. According to this exposition, prayer will be a sign of carefulness, and thanksgiving a sign of joy; that is, he never thought of Timothy without calling to remembrance the eminent virtues with which he was adorned. Hence arises ground of thanksgiving; for the recollection of the gifts of God is always pleasant and delightful to believers. Both are proofs of real friendship. He calls the mention of him (adialeipton) unceasing, because he never forgets him when he prays. Whom I worship from my ancestors This declaration he made in opposition to those well-known calumnies with which the Jews everywhere loaded him, as if he had forsaken the religion of his country, and apostatized from the law of Moses. On the contrary, he declares that he worships God, concerning whom he had been taught by his ancestors, that is, the God of Abraham, who revealed himself to the Jews, who delivered his law by the hand of Moses; and not some pretended God, whom he had lately made for himself. But here it may be asked, "Since Paul glories in following the religion handed down from his ancestors, is this a sufficiently solid foundation? For hence it follows, that this will be a plausible presence for excusing all superstitions, and that it will be a crime, if any one depart, in the smallest degree, from the institutions of his ancestors, whatever these are." The answer is easy. He does not here lay down a fixed rule, that every person who follows the religion that he received from his fathers is believed to worship God aright, and, on the other hand, that he who departs from the custom of his ancestors is at all to blame for it. For this circumstance must always be taken into account, that Paul was not descended from idolaters, but from the children of Abraham, who worshipped the true God. We know what Christ says, in disapproving of all the false worship of the Gentiles, that the Jews alone maintained the true method of worship. Paul, therefore, does not rest solely on the authority of the fathers, nor does he speak indiscriminately of all his ancestors; but he removes that false opinion, with which he knew that he was unjustly loaded, that he had forsaken the God of Israel, and framed for himself a strange god. In a pure conscience It is certain that Paul's conscience was not always pure; for he acknowledges that he was deceived by hypocrisy, while he gave loose reins to sinful desire. [2] (Romans 7:8.) The excuse which Chrysostom offers for what Paul did while he was a Pharisee, on the ground that he opposed the gospel, not through malice, but through ignorance, is not a satisfactory reply to the objection; for "a pure conscience" is no ordinary commendation, and cannot be separated from the sincere and hearty fear of God. I, therefore, limit it to the present time, in this manner, that he worships the same God as was worshipped by his ancestors, but that now he worships him with pure affection of the heart, since the time when he was enlightened by the gospel. This statement has the same object with the numerous protestations of the apostles, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: "I serve the God of my fathers, believing all things that are written in the law and in the prophets." (Acts 24:14.) Again, "And now I stand to be judged concerning the hope of the promise which was made to our fathers, to which hope our twelve tribes hope to come." (Acts 26:6.) Again, "On account of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." (Acts 28:20.) In my prayers night and day Hence we see how great was his constancy in prayer; and yet he affirms nothing about himself but what Christ recommends to all his followers. We ought, therefore, to be moved and inflamed by such examples to imitate them, so far, at least, that an exercise so necessary may be more frequent among us. If any one understand this to mean the daily and nightly prayers which Paul was wont to offer at stated hours, there will be no impropriety in that view; though I give a more simple interpretation, that there was no time when he was not employed in prayer.

Footnotes

1 - "Car le mot Grec se prend plus souvent pour Comme." -- "For the Greek word generally signifies as."

2 - "Quand il se laschoit la bride a convoiter, comme si la chose n'eust point illicite." -- "When he gave loose reins to lust, as if it had not been an unlawful thing."

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.

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 Timothy 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 neighbor 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.

(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.

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.

I thank--Greek, "I feel gratitude to God."
whom I serve from my forefathers--whom I serve (Romans 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; Romans 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 (Acts 23:1; Acts 24:14; Acts 26:6-7; Acts 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 (Malachi 4:6; Luke 1:17; Romans 11:23-24, Romans 11:28). 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 Plm 1:4). The cause of Paul's feeling thankful is, not that he remembers Timothy unceasingly in his prayers, but for what Timothy is in faith (2-Timothy 1:5) and graces; compare Romans 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 1-Timothy 5:5).

Whom I serve from my forefathers. Like Timothy (2-Timothy 1:5), he had been taught by his parents to fear and serve the Lord. Even before he became a Christian, he verily thought he served God. See Acts 23:1; Acts 24:14, and Romans 11:23-24, Romans 11:28.
Greatly desiring to see thee. There is something pathetic in this language. The lonely prisoner calls to him the tears of Timothy at their last parting, and feels a yearning desire to see and counsel him face to face once more.
When I call to remembrance. As he looked back he saw Timothy from his youth up a believer. His grandmother and mother had been converted before him, and he had followed them into the kingdom. See Acts 16:1.

Whom I serve from my forefathers - That is, whom both I and my ancestors served. With a pure conscience - He always worshipped God according to his conscience, both before and after his conversion One who stands on the verge of life is much refreshed by the remembrance of his predecessors, to whom he is going.