Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Thessalonians 2:15

"So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours." — 2 Thessalonians 2:15 (ASV)

Therefore. In view of the fact that you are chosen in this way from eternity, and that you are to be raised up to such honor and glory.

Stand fast. Amid all the temptations that surround you (Compare Ephesians 6:10 and following).

And hold the traditions which ye have been taught. Concerning the word traditions .

It properly means things delivered over from one to another; then, anything orally delivered—any precept, doctrine, or law. It is frequently used to denote that which is not written, as contrasted with that which is written , but not necessarily or always. For example, the Apostle here speaks of the "traditions which they had been taught by his epistle" (Compare 1 Corinthians 11:2).

Here it means the doctrines or precepts that they had received from the apostle, whether when he was with them or after he left them, whether communicated by preaching or by letter. This passage can furnish no authority for holding the "traditions" that have come down from ancient times and which supposedly have been derived from the apostles; for:

1. There is no evidence that any of those traditions were given by the apostles.
2. Many of them are so obviously trifling, false, and contrary to the writings of the apostles, that they could not have been delivered by them.
3. If any of them are genuine, it is impossible to separate them from those that are false.
4. We have all that is necessary for salvation in the written word.
5. There is not the least evidence that the apostle here meant to refer to any such thing. He speaks only of what he himself had delivered to them, whether orally or by letter, not of what was delivered from one to another as if from him. There is no intimation here that they were to hold anything as from him that they had not received directly from him, either by his own personal instructions or by letter. With what propriety, then, can this passage be cited to prove that we are to hold the traditions that allegedly come to us through a great number of intermediate persons? Nowhere is the evidence here that the church was to hold those unwritten traditions and transmit them to future times?

Whether by word. This refers to preaching, when the apostle was with them. It does not mean that he had sent any oral message to them by a third person.

Or our epistle. This refers to the former letter that he had written to them.

(In this context, "Traditions" means "doctrines.")