TAMIM

An Unachievable Challenge

This morning I opened my Logos app and was led to consider the Hebrew word “tamim” in light of Deuteronomy 18:13.

“You shall be blameless before the LORD your God…”

It would seem that verses like this pose an unachievable challenge to us until we dig a little deeper to understand the word “blameless” … the Hebrew word “tamim“.

In the verse in Deuteronomy, Moses commands us to be “tamim” which means finished, complete or perfect before the Lord.  It’s not telling us that we must have moral perfection but rather that we must be in the process of being “thoroughly made” or “brought to” successful completion. In other words, in the process of transformation (see Romans 12:2).

Being wholehearted (tamim) with the Lord implies that we must not be double-minded — wanting two things at once. In other words, we might desire to be at peace with God while also insisting on having or doing things our own way. Or, we might attempt to do the right things the wrong way. This is double-mindedness — the opposite of “tamim”.

One of the reasons I find myself so often unsettled within my own heart is because, like Paul articulated so well with blatant transparency, I know to do right but I often allow my flesh to overrule my desire to do what I know is right (see Romans 7:21-25). I think you probably understand the struggle as well!

Double-mindedness … a perceptual transformation that unveils a new understanding. If you change the perception of the background, the perceived image will shift. For those of us who choose to walk blameless with our God, we must choose our background and allow God’s Word to frame our understanding of life. We must be careful not to allow the world’s perception of life to influence how we perceive life else we find ourselves being double-minded before our God.

I feel particularly challenged to stop looking at the life with a cross-eyed approach — it leads to disorientation and misdirects my moment-by-moment decisions. Tamim … being made thoroughly whole, rejecting double-mindedness and making the Word of God the only lens through which I view life.

” … if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:25 ESV).