2 Thess 2:15  So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

          

Two days back we saw Paul exhorting Timothy to ‘keep his head'. Now we find a similar call to the church that was in Thessalonica. Again it is a call to stand firm. When Paul was speaking to the church at Ephesus, about spiritual warfare, his call came as, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Eph 6:13). It is a clear picture that tells us that Satan seeks to push us off the ground of truth that we have been brought into, in Christ.

 

That denial of truth that he seeks to use against us may come as a denial of who we are (doubt about Sonship), or it may be in respect of God's love for us, apart from denial over any other specific points of teaching.

 

The teaching that Paul had brought to that church would have included all these sorts of things and so his exhortation to them is to hold on to all that he had taught them and (by implication) not let the enemy push them off that ‘territory'.

 

This is so often one of the biggest causes of downfall of Christians, the failure to hang on to and live by these truths. Hold onto the truth that God loves you and is for you and don't let Satan push you away from that. Another small point: when God declares a truth or a principle you can take it as a promise and you can rely upon it, because God only speaks the truth and does not change His mind. For these reasons, we therefore need to read His word, think on it, study it, meditate upon it, and perhaps even memorise some of it, and then make sure we obey it and live by it, to ensure we comply with Paul's exhortation here, to "stand firm and hold to the teachings".