2:2 day of Christ. Some manuscripts read “the day of the Lord” here, but the meaning would be essentially the same either way. To Paul, “Christ” is “the Lord.”

2:2 at hand. There seems to have been someone in the church at Thessalonica who had represented himself as speaking and writing for Paul, but who had actually subverted Paul’s teachings about the rapture and the day of the Lord. The Thessalonians had become uncertain as to whether the day of the Lord might already be at hand—that is, now happening. This teaching had been especially convincing because of the persecutions they were experiencing. It was necessary, therefore, for Paul to remind them of what he had taught them and provide further information about these great events.

2:15 traditions. “Traditions” can be either valuable or harmful, depending on whether or not they support God’s Word. Jesus, for example, rebuked the Pharisees on this basis: “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3). Paul, on the other hand, encouraged the Thessalonians to keep the traditions they had been taught by him, either verbally or in writing (see also II Thessalonians 3:6). For the first twenty years or so of the spread of Christianity, each church needed to carefully and accurately remember what they had been taught orally by the apostles or their prophets, pastors, and teachers, for they did not yet have the New Testament in written form. By this time, however, Paul had written down at least some of his teachings, and the New Testament was beginning to take shape. Eventually, by the time the last apostle died, it would all have been written and circulated among the churches, and there would be no further need for them to be guided by the oral traditions. The corresponding message to us today, therefore, would be to “stand fast, and hold the Scriptures which ye have been taught.”