THE TRUTH OF THE CHURCH

 The "Truth" taught by Jesus, and the preaching of the Apostles, was handed down to the churches of God and is known as "Holy Tradition". "Holy Tradition" is defined as "the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church". (Eph. 2:20-22; 1 Thes. 2:13,14; 2 Thes. 2: 15; 3:6; 1 Cor.11:2). From these verses we know that the "truth" was passed down both orally and in written form(Epistles). The Church became the repository of the "truth of Christ", aka "the Faith". 1 Timothy 3:15 reveals that "the Church" is "the pillar and ground of the truth". The foundation of Christian Faith is the Church, the Scriptures tell us this. (Interesting note here is that the very next verse(v. 16), St Paul quotes an ancient Christian creed or hymn. This shows us that the "Truth of the Church" was embodied in liturgical hymns as well as the oral teachings of the Apostles and the written Epistles of the Apostles. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13,14 we can see that the believers in Thessalonica "became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus". The believers at the beginning did not have copies of the New Testament as we do now. The churches were teaching from both, the Old Testament, and from what the Apostles were teaching about Jesus, both orally and in epistles. The church communities were Spirit-filled worshipping communities, praying the Psalms, singing hymns about Jesus, and spiritual songs that conveyed creedal truth, and celebrating the Lord's Supper, sharing and having all things in common(Acts 2:42-47; 4:32).