1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began; 3but in his own time revealed his word in the message with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior, 4to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
5I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you— 6if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior. 7For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; 8but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled, 9holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.
10For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake. 12One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” 13This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
Common (Gk. κοινός, koinos). (Mark 7:2; Acts 2:44; 4:31; 10:14, 28; 11:8; Rom 14:4. Titus 1:4; Heb 10:29; Jude 3) Strong's 2839
Five of the twelve uses of this word in the NT occur in Acts. It can refer to something shared in common, or something that is common and therefore of little value because it is ordinary or profane. The use here is the first, something shared in common. These early Christians held “all things in common,” pooling their assets voluntarily. This use, “shared, common,” only occurs in this verse, Acts 4:31; Titus 1:4 and Jude 3. The majority of uses follow second meaning, “ordinary,” which has an important religious application, especially in relation to Judaism. In the law, there are things that God considers holy; the opposite of something holy is something common, or ritually unclean. The NT makes it clear that Christianity does not assume the demands of ritual purity from the OT. The NT requires holiness, but the focus is not on the holiness of things. In the life of the Christian, there are certain things that God establishes as holy, what He does not is secular. God leaves the secular to the believer to make holy by bringing the presence of Christ to bear on all these aspects of life, ultimately making all of life holy.