Lesson 13: Completeness in Christ

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Lesson Overview

Daily Reading Schedule:

• Thursday: Colossians 1:21-29
• Friday: Ephesians 4:11-16
• Saturday: Matthew 5:43-48
• Sunday: 1 Peter 5:5-11
• Monday: Philippians 3:12-21
• Tuesday: 2 Corinthians 13:7-11

Lead Scripture:
Colossians 1:27-28 “To them God willed to

make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” The goal of our transformed life is completion, or perfection, in Christ. By perfect, we do not mean sinless, although sin must not characterize our life. Perfection, as the goal of the Christian, is a description of maturity. Completeness and perfection are often interchanged when describing the fully transformed child of God. Perfection literally means “complete ly equipped.” We are like soldiers who are completely outfitted for ba ttle or sojourners comp letely outfitted for our journey. God has given us all things that we need for this life and for engaging our foe. We grow into that completeness. Our goal is to have Christ living in us. Our desire is for the mind of Christ to rule our mind, so that we would walk as He walked, and that we would find our complete existence in Him. When we allow the wickedness of the world to have a place in our life, we cannot become complete. We can only become complete when we throw off the weights and the sin that easily ensnares us, Hebrews 12:1.

Attaining Perfection

Several things in the New Testamen t carry us to perfection. The firs t of these is Jesus. Jesus is the means and the motiva tion towards perfection. He came to earth and gave us a perfect example of how we must live. He died and gave His blood so we could have our sins washed away and become complete, Hebrews 9:9-15. Wh en we are baptized, Hi s blood removes our sin and we make a covenant with Him, the goal of which is our perfection. He works with us and in us to perfect us. The message of God leads us to perfection. G od gave the church many teachers to lead Christians to perfection, Ephesians 4:11-15. Th e early church had apostles and prophets in person; we have their message recorded in th e scriptures. The church today has preachers, pastors (elders), teachers, evangelists, and the me ssage of the apostles to build it up and to equip it fully for work. The goal of growth is for the church to be fully mature, up to the measure of the fullness of Christ. In our lives and in the churc h, we must be filled with Christ, living as He lived, not tossed around by every strange doctrine and fad that comes along. The church members must be knit together into the body of Christ and serve under Him, who is the head of all things. God revealed His word to equip us thoroughly, 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The word of God is self- sufficient. We do not need a creed or modern pr ophecy to equip us. The Bible is complete to make us complete. It reveals all things that pertain to life on this earth and godliness, 2 Peter 1:3. It will make us wise about salvation, 2 Timo thy 3:15. It provides proof for faith, pattern for changing behavior, instruction in what is right, and encouragement for living, 2 Timothy 3:16. To become complete, we must spend much time with the word. James compared the perfect law of liberty to a mirror, James 1: 22-25. When we look into the mirror of God’s law and we change what needs to be changed, we become perfect, or complete. A rich young ruler came to Jesus, he wanting to be complete. Jesus, the author of the perfect law of liberty, told him that if he wanted to be perfect, he would have to sell his posse ssions, Matthew 19:16-22. He would not change so that he could be perfect. If we have covetousness , lust, hatred, laziness, or any other impediment to growth, we cannot be perfect unless it is removed. Patience will also lead us to pe rfection. James urges us to be pati ent in suffering so that we can be complete, lacking nothing, Ja mes 1:2-4. Suffering allows us to focus on th e spiritual and eternal things. When Paul asked that his suffe ring, a “thorn in the fl esh” be removed, Jesus declined saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9. In the Parable of the Sower the sun is compared to suffering and persecution. It makes the seed on the rocky soil wither away but causes the seed on the good soil to thrive. Suffering perfects our faith and make s it grow 1 Peter 3:6-7. When we suffer, we must cast our care and our trust on God completely. As we do this, we draw closer to Him and farther from the world. We become like Jesus who became perf ect in suffering because He depended on His Father, Hebrews 2:10-11. When we show love towards those who cannot repa y us or who might be considered inferior to us, we are perfected. Jesus taught, in Matthew 5: 43-48, that we must bless our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use us. God shows His love and mercy to His children and His enemies. He expects the same from us. It is easy for us to love those who love us. We become perfect, or complete, when we love our enemies. Presented Perfect in Christ True perfection will only come when this life is over. We are thoroughly equipped while on this earth to do every good work. However, we must be constantly growing in the word since we will never be finished with our study of God’s word. Until our last breath we will never be finished with persecution and suffering and so the perfecting work of sufferi ng will not be complete until we have died. We will spend our lives removing the obstacles to perfection from our lives and loving as God loved. We must not be discourage d, however, because every day that we are studying, enduring temptation and suffering, loving as Christ loved, and tr ansforming our lives, we are becoming what God intended: Christ in you, the hope of glor y, Colossians 1:27-28. We are being transformed from glory into glor y, day by day, becoming more like Jesus, 2 Corinthians 3:18. As Paul urged, we must press on to perfection, leaving the things of the past and any impediment that would restrain us, Philippians 3:7-16.

“Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” 2 Corinthians 13:11

Questions for Discussion & Study

1. What does it mean to be perfect or complete?

2. What means has God given us to bring us to perfection?

3. What things can prevent us from being complete? Whose responsibility is it to remove those impediments?

4. How are we made perfect through suffering?

5. When will we become fully perfected?