God's Call to Wholeness,

Part 2

Few people realize the gospel of Christ is a call to wholeness. Jesus issues the call in His sermon on the mount. Matthew recorded this God idea in his documentation of Christ’s teaching where He said:

Paul declared the apostles preached, “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Col. 1:28) James picks up on this truth when he encourages believers to exercise patience, that they may be “perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (Jam. 1:4)

In all three scriptures the word perfect is translated from the Greek word “teleioo,” which means to “complete,” literally meaning to “accomplish,” and figuratively to “consummate.” In the Old Testament the word “perfect” – in Psalm 18:30 and other scriptures – is translated from the Hebrew word “tamiym,” which means “entire, integrity, and truth.”

According to the American Heritage Dictionary the word “complete” means “to make whole, with all necessary elements or parts,” while “consummate” means “perfect and complete in every respect; having all necessary qualities.”

The word “entire” is defined as “whole; complete; not broken, damaged, or decayed, but intact.” And the word “integrity” is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” It also means “the state of being whole and undivided;” “the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction.”

According to Jesus our Father in heaven wants us to be just like Him, complete, whole and having all the essential qualities for a rich fulfilling life. And it’s all based on wholeness. Think about it, you know our heavenly Father does not operate from a dysfunctional, unhealthy, or incomplete core. He doesn’t have any emotional hang-ups or psychological problems. His wholeness is part of the glory of His person.

God says “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). Furthermore, Paul says “there is none righteous no not one” (Rom. 3:10). This tells us that unlike our heavenly Father, there is not one living person who can claim to be complete or is exempt from suffering a lack of wholeness. We all have fallen short of His glory.

Therefore, wholeness begins with God. He sets the standard for wholeness, and God Himself is the template for wholeness. In this day and time however, we must be careful we are not deceived by promoters of counterfeit wholeness. There are some new age gurus and secular psychological experts claiming they can show humanity the way to wholeness.

They say that through co-intelligence humanity can achieve wholeness. What this basically means is that if we all put our best thoughts together, with each person contributing his portion, mankind can develop a corporate concept of what wholeness looks like. They advocate for no absolutes in their quest for wholeness, arguing that this would exclude some and thus prevent wholeness.

There is no way “lack of wholeness” – in its incomplete and damaged state – can produce a healthy or accurate model of wholeness. Any plan for wholeness developed through mankind’s fallen and darkened understanding is utterly incapable of providing restoration of humanity’s unfulfilled and incomplete state. Outside of God all human attempts at achieving wholeness are futile.

Only God, who is the Master of wholeness, can bring us into the place that has been His residence for eternity. Only He provides us with the template for wholeness. Only He can show us the way to complete wholeness and fulfillment. Therefore, we must positively respond to His call for wholeness.

So why should we pursue wholeness? There are several reasons. First, God instructs us to imitate Him. He wants us to be like Him. He wants us to be free from dysfunction, unrealistic or faulty perceptions of reality, unhealthy or toxic relationships, behaviors and attitudes that sabotage our quality of life, or demonic intrusions through our vulnerabilities.

He desires to be a God of a people that are healthy and whole, a people that are sound and stable, a people able to steadfastly stand and push back the intrusions and dark initiatives of His enemies, a people that will – with fierce resolution – advance His kingdom agenda in the earth.

Secondly, lack of wholeness renders us susceptible and vulnerable to the attacks of the devil. Just look at the many leaders in the body of Christ that have shipwrecked their lives and their ministries due to lack of wholeness. While many have put up a good front, presenting themselves as mighty men of God, the assumption of having it all together has been their downfall. Deceived by their success – numbers-wise – and believing the feedback of their yes men, they refused to acknowledge or deal with the lack of wholeness in their lives.

Jesus said; “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” (Jn. 14:30) Jesus could say this because He like His Father is whole. Although the devil tried to tempt Jesus, His state of wholeness eliminated any vulnerability the evil one could use to draw Him into a compromising position.

If you could imagine a fresh apple pie with no slices cut out or missing – we could say that pie was whole. However, if several pieces of that pie are removed, that pie is no longer whole. In the same way individuals who lack wholeness have gaps in their emotional or psychological make-up that render them vulnerable to the destroyer of men’s souls.

In their spiritual pride and arrogance they deem themselves untouchable and beyond the reach of the enemy. Only after they find themselves sitting in the shambles of decimated dreams and the rubble of a shattered spiritual life do they realize their error.

Another reason to pursue wholeness is that we will never achieve nor fulfill our redemptive destiny in God without walking out God’s call to wholeness. We will never fulfill the promise and maximum potential God has ordained for us if we neglect the call to wholeness.

Lack of wholeness will always cause us to fall short of all that God originally intended us to achieve. We may do some good works but we will never reach the place of maximized fruitfulness.

Finally, numerous times God said in His word “be ye holy, for I am holy” (I Pet. 1:16/ Lev.11:45, 20:7, 26). He has declared that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation (I Pet. 2:9). In man’s attempts to obey God’s command to be holy, he has tried every kind of fleshly effort to be holy, from requiring particular types of dress, or hair styles, to special days of service.

But consider this – could it be that God’s holiness is directly related to His wholeness? When people are whole they are less susceptible to sin, less prone to indulge in the profane, and less apt to be led astray. One of the by-products of wholeness is an effortless unfolding of holiness. When you are whole, you just don’t do the things that a lack of wholeness has a propensity for.

In our next discussion we will examine the disciplines required to answer God’s call to wholeness.

© Copyright 2014 Ivan G. Doxtator