If you think about it, many of your own family customs, practices, rituals and traditions have been passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth only. Treasured old recipes are learned not written down, precious oral histories are handed down from oldest to youngest, as children are taught by their elders the family stories of old. And just like that, the Apostle Paul was encouraging the people here to hold fast to the Gospel Message he had preached to them…to remember what he had instructed them, so that they could continue to stand firm in the faith without faltering.