COMPLETE

And you are COMPLETE in Him, who is the head of all principality and power – Colossians 2:10

The Ordered Life is the COMPLETE Life. How soothing it is to know that there is a solution to humanity’s unending search for the missing experience – the quest to fill an inner vacuum. This is the impetus that’s driven multitudes into occultism, mysticism, experimentation with drugs, and the insatiable longing for a “higher experience”! Completeness in Christ is the ultimate answer to fill this gaping gap; the revelation that satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart. The answer is stated in Colossians 2:8-10 where the Holy Spirit exalts the person of Christ: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and nor according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

What a magnificent message this is: In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ embodies all that there is in God! Then the equally amazing proclamation: YOU are COMPLETE in HIM! There are very many people who feel or are conscious of something missing in their lives. But the Word of God assures believers that we are complete in Christ. If a thing is complete, then nothing is missing. In a sense we need not search any further. We now know where the seemingly missing link is: it is in Christ. Notice also the tense: “you ARE complete” in Christ, not, you will be! Truly there are many more glorious experiences awaiting us in the future, while on this pilgrimage to our eternal Home, and even when we are with Him forevermore, but the Scripture refers to a quality of completeness here and now. As I go through all the issues of life, its joys, pressures, challenges, and victories, I am complete in Christ. He has given me life in all its completeness and fullness.

Completeness in Christ was the subject of Ephaphras’ wrestling in prayer for the Colossian Christians: “always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and COMPLETE in all the will of God” (Col.4:12). Prison walls could not confine the flight and freedom of the soul of this spiritual giant. Though physically separated from his treasured flock, he still exercised on their behalf the most forceful of all ministries – Intercession. His passion for their spiritual development was poured into fervent, agonizing prayer, which reflected the Lord’s travail at Gethsemane. So intense was his identification with his children in the faith that it became a matter of life and death. This scripture portrays a perspiring wrestler straining every muscle, summoning every last ounce of strength to contend in the duel. Epaphras prayed to the point of exhaustion. His passion became almost an obsession: “ALWAYS labouring fervently for you…”

It was Epaphras’ kneeling that kept the Colossians standing! His prayers were not focused on the mundane and the trivial. Rather, his soul soared in aspiration for his beloved brethren. He prayed for their constancy, that without vacillating, they might stand firm and not flinch in the face of falsehood, decadence, and pagan opposition. He petitioned heaven for their spiritual maturity, that they might progress to perfection, standing perfect and complete.

The revelation of and intercession for completeness would precede the experience of it. My completeness is not situated in ‘self,’ in the limp hands of another human being or the empty embrace of any religion, institution or organisation. In Christ, I cease from vain striving and fleshly toiling. Because of Him, I am not under pressure to prove myself anymore. Jesus is enough. His grace alone is sufficient. When God looks at me, He sees His Son and His accomplished assignment in my life. No new program, new look, or new gimmick can create completeness. No new baptism, spectacular spiritual encounter or charismatic experience can produce completeness, because I am already complete – in Christ. What my Lord desires of me is to work out the completeness that He has is already in my spiritual DNA!