September 7 | Bible in a Year: Proverbs 1–2; 1 Corinthians 16

Complete in Christ

So you also are complete through your union with Christ. Colossians 2:10 nlt

READ Colossians 2:6–15

In a popular film, an actor plays a success-driven sports agent whose marriage begins to crumble. Attempting to win back his wife, Dorothy, he looks into her eyes and says, “You complete me.” It’s a heart-warming message that echoes a tale in Greek philosophy. According to that myth, each of us is a “half” that must find our “other half” to become whole.

The belief that a romantic partner “completes” us is now part of popular culture. But is it true? I talk to many married couples who still feel incomplete because they haven’t been able to have children and others who’ve had kids but feel something else is missing. Ultimately, no human can fully complete us.

The apostle Paul gives another solution. “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ” (Colossians 2:9–10 nlt). Jesus doesn’t just forgive us and liberate us, He also completes us by bringing the life of God into our lives (vv. 13–15).

Marriage is good, but it can’t make us whole. Only Jesus can do that. Instead of expecting a person, career, or anything else to complete us, let’s accept God’s invitation to let His fullness fill our lives more and more.

By Sheridan Voysey

How have you sought spiritual fulfillment through people instead of God? How does Jesus’ completing you change your view of marriage and singleness?

Jesus, thank You for making me complete through Your death, resurrection, forgiveness, and restoration.

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT

The idea of living our lives in Christ is prominent throughout today’s Scripture reading (Colossians 2:6–15). In fact, the words “in him” (“with him”; “in Christ”) appear several times. In verse 6, believers in Jesus are told to “live your lives in him,” indicating that He’s the One we need to imitate, and our identity is found in Him. Verse 7 continues with the idea of being “rooted and built up in him.” The verb rooted is a metaphor for receiving our sustenance from Jesus continually, as a plant takes in its nourishment at the roots. Verses 9–11 each begin with terminology that refers to being “in Christ.” These verses explain why Jesus is central to the forgiveness of our sins, emphasizing His death and resurrection as well as our role in dying with Him (to our sin) and rising with Him.