ACC ~ 2 Timothy 1 v3b

THE SAME GOD OF JEWS AND CHRISTIANS. ORIGEN: We grant that there are some among us who may deny that the God of the Jews is truly God. Yet that is no reason to criticize those who prove from the same Scriptures that there is one and the same God for Jews and Gentiles. So also Paul, who came to Christianity from the Jews, says clearly, “I thank my God whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience.” AGAINST CELSUS 5.61.

LEARNING TO LONG FOR TRUE RELIGION. CHRYSOSTOM: How then, you will say, were unclean persons considered worthy of the gospel? Because they wished and longed for it. Among these, some, though in error, were attracted to him because they were not made unclean through disordered loves. Then there are others who were not rejected because they sought God of their own accord. In these ways, many even from their ancestors have received the true religion. HOMILIES ON FIRST CORINTHIANS 8.2.

PAUL’S ROOTS. AMBROSIASTER: When Paul persecuted the church, he did it for the love of God, not out of malevolence. In this way he served God “in his ancestors” and “from his ancestors,” as Levi was served in Abraham, when he gave and accepted tithes from Melchizedek. COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

PAUL’S ZEAL FOR THE LAW. PELAGIUS: Paul says, My whole origin steered me to the worship of God. I devastated the church of Christ not from malevolence but from zeal for the law. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY.

2 Tim