“Wholeness” or “completeness” or “perfection” is a very important term in Old Testament religion. When the Old Testament talks about the wholeness or the completeness or the perfection of a believer, it doesn’t mean that we are sinlessly perfect, that we are without sin or error in our lives. It means that what we are on the outside is what we are on the inside. What we are personally, we are publicly.
The wholeness of a believer means that what we are on the outside is what we are on the inside.There is a wholeness to us, internally and externally, personally and publicly, so that the whole of our life is lived in a way that is consistent. We live in honor and praise and worship of God in all the facets of our lives. It’s a positive way of saying that we’re not hypocrites. We’re not acting one way on the outside when we’re really a different way on the inside. We’re not acting like we are pious without failing to love our neighbor. The Bible’s understanding of holiness is one that speaks to the wholeness of the believer so that we have integrity before God that we are on the inside who we claim to be on the outside, and our private life matches our public holiness.
We care about God. We love God. We care about our neighbor. We love our neighbor. So, the whole of our life is together. Abraham is called by God to walk before him and be whole or complete or perfect. The Psalms talk about the man who is whole. Job was spoken of as a man who was whole, so holiness and wholeness are aspirations for the Bible believer.
