Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history.

Last week we were looking at tradition, actually we were looking at tradition gone awry as we were looking

at the legend of Saint Sebastian and the odd turns and twists it took as that legend made its way

through church history. I wanted to revisit this subject of tradition with you and

this time we're going to go back to a biblical text. We're going to go to 2

2 2. Now to set the context here we should really look at verse 1 and

in verse 1 of chapter 2 of 2 Timothy,

Paul says,

You then my child be strengthened by the grace

that is in Christ Jesus.

Such a wonderful verse, it shows us the warm relationship that Paul had

with Timothy. This is his son in the faith. You definitely see the warmth and the way in which

Paul poured his life into Timothy and just

wants to see Timothy excel as a minister. So he says you then be strengthened by

the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Then we come to verse 2.

Now this verse played a very crucial role in the early church.

And there are two key words that come out of this verse that functioned significantly in the early church,

and also speak directly to this issue of tradition.

And what do we do with it and how we can have a good use and a helpful way to

employ tradition.

Well, here goes verse two.

...