traditions

¹⁵So may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and who has given us an everlasting consolation and good hope in grace,

⁸See to it that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty falsehoods, as found in the traditions of men, in accord with the influences of the world, and not in accord with Christ.

³But responding, he said to them: “And why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said:

²Now I praise you, brothers, because you are mindful of me in everything, in such a way as to hold to my precepts as I have handed them down to you.

³For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat without repeatedly washing their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴And when returning from the market, unless they wash, they do not eat. And there are many other things which have been handed down to them to observe: the washings of cups, and pitchers, and bronze containers, and beds. ⁵And so the Pharisees and the scribes questioned him: “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but they eat bread with common hands?” ⁶But in response, he said to them: “So well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, just as it has been written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. ⁷And in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and precepts of men.’ ⁸For abandoning the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men, to the washing of pitchers and cups. And you do many other things similar to these.”

⁶then he shall not honor his father or his mother.’ So have you nullified the commandment of God, for the sake of your tradition.

¹Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. ²Now I praise you, brothers, because you are mindful of me in everything, in such a way as to hold to my precepts as I have handed them down to you.

⁶But we strongly caution you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to draw yourselves away from every brother who is walking in disorder and not according to the tradition that they received from us.

²that you should preach the word urgently, in season and out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke, with all patience and doctrine. ³For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but instead, according to their own desires, they will gather to themselves teachers, with itching ears, ⁴and certainly, they will turn their hearing away from the truth, and they will be turned toward fables.

¹⁴And so, brothers, stand firm, and hold to the traditions that you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle. ¹⁵So may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and who has given us an everlasting consolation and good hope in grace,

⁷But avoid the silly fables of old women. And exercise yourself so as to advance in piety.

¹Listen to the word that the Lord has spoken concerning you, O house of Israel. ²Thus says the Lord: “Do not choose to learn according to the ways of the Gentiles. And do not be willing to dread the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear. ³For the laws of the people are empty. For the work of the hand of the craftsman has cut a tree from the forest with an axe. ⁴He has adorned it with silver and gold. He has put it together with nail and hammer, so that it will not fall apart. ⁵They have been fabricated in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak. They must be carried to be moved, because they do not have the ability to walk. Therefore, do not be willing to fear them, for they can do neither evil nor good.”