Who Completes You?

Colossians 2:10a (NASB95)

“and in Him you have been made complete…”

There is a phrase that couples often say about each other that makes me cringe every time I hear it.

One spouse says about the other – “He or She completes me.”  Now you might think, “That’s such a nice thing to say.  Why does it make you cringe?”  Let me explain.

Its true that we are all incomplete in and of ourselves.  For one thing God said, “It is not good for man to be alone…”  God created us to live in community… to have relationships… to be a part of a family.  Yes, husbands and wives often complement each other – with their different skills, different personalities and so forth.  But think about this.  If you need a spouse to be complete – what about the single person?  Can’t they ever be complete.  No, the heart of our incompleteness, has to do with our relationship with God.  We are sinners.  We fall short of God’s glory.  Remember what happened as soon as Adam and Eve sinned.  For the first time ever, they hid from the Lord.  That’s the true source of incompleteness in every one of us.  Without God, we are incomplete.

So, what are we doing to our spouse when we say, “He or she completes me?”  We are setting them up to fail and disappoint us.  We are asking them to be what they cannot be, are not meant to be in our lives.  After all they can be a wonderful loving spouse, but they can never be God in our lives.  Indeed, that’s what we are doing to anyone or anything, other than the true God, in our lives. When we say, “If only I made more money… if only I could buy a new house… if only I had a different job, then everything would be wonderful – we are giving those things the place of God in our lives.  There is nothing wrong with making more money, buying a new house, or getting a new job, unless we start thinking that such things are the solution to all our problems.  Then those things are sure to disappoint us… sure to fail us. 

There is only One who can complete you or me.  There is only One who can bring you and me into a right relationship with God.  That one is Jesus.  In Him the gap between God and man is bridged. He is both.  He lived the perfect, God pleasing life we fail to live.  He offered that life in our place, as payment for our sin.  He rose again that we might live.  He came to you and me in baptism that we might be adopted into God’s family.  He comes daily to forgive our sins, to daily restore us to God.  That’s why Paul wrote of Jesus, “and in Him you have been made complete…”

Are you looking for completeness – look to Jesus.   He is the author and perfector of  your faith…” 

The Apostle John wrote in his first letter, God is light.  In Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.   But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.   When you are walking in Him… when you live by faith in Jesus… when God is your God… then all those other things and people – money, home, employment, husband, wife, family – are free to be what God intends them to be – blessings from God that enable you to live for Him and love those around you.

Who completes you?  Jesus.