In this letter to the church at Thessalonica, Paul is attempting to correct a misunderstanding about the Lord's return. It seems that some church members were teaching that the Lord's return had already occurred. Paul noted that this could not have happened because certain things must precede the second coming of Christ. He speaks of the "man of lawlessness" (the Antichrist).
Paul offers encouragement to the church members to remain faithful to all they had been taught. He told them that God would continue to direct their paths, and they must keep working until the Lord's return. In Chapter 2, verse 15, Paul says, so brethren, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions which you were taught by us, whether by our word of mouth or by letter.
Traditions, what are they and what does it mean to hold fast to them? Traditions are the passing on of something of importance from one generation to the next either by word of mouth or by example. And what do stand firm or hold fast mean? The word "stand" in the Greek means "to continue, to abide." The word "hold" in Greek means "to keep in memory, to seize on , possess, to stay." So, the question is - what are the traditions that Christians have passed on from one generation to the next to hold fast to and stand firm on? Here are some that I thought of:
Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another (Eph. 4:32)
Children, obey your parents in everything for this is pleasing to the Lord (Col. 3:20)
Study to show yourselves approved unto God . . . rightly diving the word of truth. (2Tim. 2:15)
Let us not neglect the assembling together (Heb. 10:25)
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt. 5:16)
The list could go on and on. We need only to read the Word to find more. Are we holding fast to these traditions that have been preserved for us and try to live them daily and be good examples? Are we passing them on to our children and grandchildren?
As we close this year of 2011 and look forward to 2012, my prayer for all of us is that we do just that - stand firm and hold fast to what we have learned this year from reading through the Bible and participating in this Blog, and to keep those honored "traditions" that we have gleaned not only from written Word, but from the Living Word, our Lord.
