"It is necessary for you, who have been deemed worthy of such blessings, to be steadfast" (Saint John of Damascus). God chose you from eternity, brought you to faith, and granted you grace.
Use effort on your part, then, to stand unwaveringly in the order of the new life introduced among you. One's own effort to stand is an indispensable condition of salvation.
It is the chief moving life-force of Christians. Everything else is means. If this effort does not arise, life stops.
The words "hold the traditions" explain in what one must stand. One must strictly hold, keep, and observe everything that was handed down to them by the Apostles.
Do not be hearers only, but doers also. You have heard and received. Therefore fulfill it, so that all may see that you are not merely called Christ's, but are in deed His, true Christians.
In our usual speech, tradition means a tale, custom, or belief passed from ancestors to descendants from time immemorial. Therefore it borders on undefined rumor, subject to examination and criticism.
In the word of God, in the mouth of the Apostle Paul, it means the handing down of divine teaching. It is taken from the activity of teachers, who in classes hand down, paradidoun, lessons.
When they go to class, they say that they are going eis ten paradosin, to give a lesson. Thus tradition here too is equivalent to the divine Revelation of the New Testament.
It embraces everything brought into mankind as a result of the Lord's command, "Go and teach" (Mt 28:19). Blessed Theodoret writes on this place: "Acknowledge as the rule of teaching what was handed down to you by us."
"It is what we preached to you when we were with you, and what we wrote when we left you." Word and epistle are means of handing down the divine Christian faith.
Writing is the same kind of tradition as word. But afterward, in ecclesiastical usage, Tradition came to mean exclusively the teaching orally handed down by the Apostles and preserved by the Church.
The course of Church life required this. When the apostolic writings became generally known and were joined into one body, everyone drew from these writings that part of divine Revelation contained in them.
Meanwhile, much was believed and practiced in Christian communities that is not found in these writings. To the question, "Whence is this?" the answer was: the holy Apostles taught this orally and personally established and introduced it.
Or: this has been handed down by the Apostles. Or simply: there is a tradition. Thus this unwritten apostolic teaching, or divine Revelation, came to be called Tradition.
That which was contained in the apostolic writings was called Scripture. Both were respected equally. Both were equally treasured.
Saint Chrysostom writes on the present text: "From this it clearly follows that the Apostles did not hand everything down to the faithful through epistles, but communicated much also without writing. Meanwhile, both are equally trustworthy."
"Therefore we must also acknowledge Church tradition as trustworthy. There is tradition; seek nothing more." So spoke the teachers of the Church both before Saint Chrysostom and after him.
Much of what the Apostles handed down orally and personally instituted later entered the writings of their successors, the pastors of the Church. Much also remained unwritten by them and was preserved in hearts, or in practice, in the orders of Christian life.
Some things were intentionally not committed to writing. Such is, for example, the manner of performing the mysteries, according to the observation of Cyril of Jerusalem.
This was done in order to hide it from unbelievers, who are unworthy either to hear or read of it until they come to faith.
From this it is self-evident how groundlessly the heterodox reject Church teachings and rites not indicated in Scripture. Their excuse also has no value, that they fear accepting something non-apostolic, and therefore reject everything not contained in Scripture.
Gold miners do not gather only what is plainly gold. Often they gather earth and sand, and in great quantity, out of fear that they might miss some grain of gold, even though it is not visible.
They too ought to act in this way. Much, of course, was introduced after the Apostles. But it was introduced on the foundation of apostolic tradition and in the same spirit.
In this general mass, what is directly apostolic is also hidden. Is the apostolic precious? It is precious to everyone.
Therefore one ought to hold everything held by the Church, from a serious fear that, while fearing to accept what is not apostolic, one might also trample upon what is apostolic.
To trample upon what is apostolic is already a destructive matter. But to accept, out of reverence, something not directly apostolic, yet in every way harmonious with the apostolic and penetrated by its spirit, can cause no harm.
The only lawful fear is lest one accept something contrary to the apostolic. But the Church herself watches over this, having as a constant law to reject every tradition which, appearing under the name of apostolic, would be contrary to apostolic teaching.
When the Apostles planted Christianity on earth, they did not teach a theory but established a life. Coming to some place, they handed down Christian teaching to people, sound understandings about everything, and commandments concerning the virtues with which one must adorn the heart.
They established the orders of life, how one should conduct oneself outwardly. They defined Christian conduct before believers and unbelievers. They established how one should pray to God in the common assembly and privately at home.
They established how to perform the mysteries and how to preserve the teaching received. Having appointed persons to oversee all this, and to carry out and sanctify some of it, they departed for another place.
Christian life immediately began in its entire scope. So it was in another place, and a third, and in all places. So acted one Apostle, and another, and all of them.
In all ends of the earth, wherever the beautiful feet of the heralds reached, the moral and religious, familial, ecclesiastical, and social orders of Christian life were established.
All were in one spirit and according to one design, not composed on earth, but traced in heaven, like the design of the tabernacle.
Therefore, as the Church came forth from the hands of the Apostles and appeared throughout the whole world, so she exists by the will and decree of God Himself.
So she must be, in order to accomplish the salvation of perishing mankind. Thus from the earliest times we see everywhere in the Church of God laypeople and consecrated persons, deacons, priests, and bishops.
Upon them lay the task of preaching the word, sanctifying by the mysteries that bestow grace, and guiding in life. We see the seven mysteries established, and the rites of prayer and divine services: Vespers, Matins, and the Liturgy.
We see that among Christians not all days were equal. Some were set aside exclusively for prayer and the satisfaction of religious needs. We see that eating meat was not continuous.
There were days, and many of them, on which strict abstinence was appointed. This was not temporary, but for all times.
We see that among Christians in all local Churches there were special zealots. Having left everything and renounced everything, they dedicated themselves exclusively to prayer and divine contemplation, with strict abstinence and the weakening of the flesh.
They did this in the unfailing conviction that by this path they would more quickly root out the passions within themselves, ascend to purity, and be deemed worthy of perceptible communion with God.
This communion was promised to all Christians by the power and action of all-sanctifying grace, by which they were guided on this very laborious path.
Such, in general, is the structure of Christian life from the earliest times. What was later added was added into this same order, not as a new institution, but as an expansion or better adaptation to place and time of what the Apostles had established.
That there should be fasts common to all Christians at one appointed time is an apostolic law. The fasts on Wednesday and Friday, and the fast in remembrance of the Lord's sufferings, were undoubtedly instituted by the Apostles.
On this foundation, all other fasts and all fasting rites were later established in the Church. The existence of strict ascetics was laid down by the Apostles, and the general law for them is prescribed even in Scripture, in the epistle to the Corinthians.
From this, all the monastic orders later grew. To gather together for prayer, and with one mouth to praise God and offer prayer to Him, is an apostolic institution.
In their time, certain Church hymns were introduced, and perhaps even given by them. But later, from this beginning, all the varied hymnody of the Church developed.
So it is in everything. The whole structure of Christian life, in general, comes from the Apostles. Afterward nothing was added to this general structure. Only the details developed more broadly and in greater variety.
Yet apostolic details are hidden there as well. All this, both what was added over time and what was handed down by the Apostles, is preserved by our holy Orthodox Church.
Everything in the Church is precious to us. All cautious and reverent Christians strictly observe the prayerful and sanctifying orders that characterize our Church life.
They see in this a necessary support also for the inner moral and religious life of Christians.
THEOSIS