Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Timothy · About this commentary
Lois and Eunice
2 Timothy 1:3-5
3 I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day · WEB
Paul thanks God for a faith he did not start, and names the two women who did.
I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. Paul locates his own service in a line running backward, which prepares the compliment he is about to pay Timothy's family — continuity is on his mind before he mentions it.
The prayers are unceasing, night and day, and the memory attached is physical: remembering your tears. Somewhere a parting had happened, and Paul recalls the young man's face rather than his words.
Verse 5 names what he is thankful for. A sincere faith — the word means unhypocritical, without an actor's mask — which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and, I am persuaded, in you also.
Acts makes the tribute sharper: Timothy's mother was a believing Jewess, his father a Greek Acts 16:1. The household was religiously divided, and the faith crossed two generations anyway. Paul does not claim him — he traces the line back past himself to two women and stops.
settled What this mark means