HE IS ABLE

PART FIVE

THE COMMON FAITH!

“To Titus, mine own son after the common faith”
Titus 1:4

Here is Paul writing to Titus as his own son in the faith. Titus was sent to travel throughout the Church of Jesus Christ to set things in order and to ordain elders in every city. It was a ministry that was to preserve the purity of the word, to stop the gainsayers, the propagation of Jewish fables and the teaching of the traditions of men. Right from the outset Paul is communicating to Titus that there is a common faith.  A common faith that produces a common love for one another; a common faith that produces a common brotherhood. The heresy of this hour where we see closed and secular groups each claiming that they are of the “true” faith is to deny the very passion of the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ when HE prayed in John 17, that they may be ONE. We are not talking of some ecumenical concept for that is but an attempt by man to have a unity based on the minimizing of faith and truth. What Jesus spoke of was a unity founded on FAITH and TRUTH. The common faith must produce a common brotherhood!

The Greek word used here for “common” is the word koinos (κοινός) which is best translated “common or belonging to several or of which several are partakers”. This common Faith by its very nature is meant to be shared and held within the community of faith and not some “elect” circle. It is a faith that recognizes and participates with people of the “common” faith. It is the root word of koinōnia of which much has been written and of which much more is to be known. How necessary it is for us to see that the commonality of the FAITH, not teaching, is what makes us partakers and joint heirs of God! Paul prayed for the Ephesians…

“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom the WHOLE family in
heaven and earth is named”
Ephesians 3:14 – 15

The Greek word here for family is singular! For it is by faith that we have been born into the family of God; it is by faith that we are made PARTAKERS and the expression of this faith in our daily lives must reveal this truth. The present day expression of a powerless, divided and secular church is a sad testimony to our real condition. Jesus said when the son of man returns will HE FIND FAITH. We are told that in this hour the love of many shall grow cold. Are we not seeing this? If we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how can we have the audacity to say that we love God whom we have not seen? This is the DAY to PREPARE the WAY of the LORD; a day to turn, to consider HIS HOUSE not our own. It is a day to return to the simplicity of the “common faith” that we might become that expression of the truth that will produce a depth of LOVE that the world may know of a surety that THIS IS THE FAMILY OF GOD.

May there be a hastening of this within the heart of every true believer in Christ.

HE IS ABLE!

Ω

“They are the true disciples of Christ,
not who know most,
but who love most”
Frederich Spanheim the Elder (1600–1649)

Brian Troxel