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Old Tigers
“Old Tigers”
There’s a well-worn adage that says, “Old tigers, sensing the end, are the most fierce.” Most of us are not “old,” in the sense that we usually apply the word to the span of human life, and none of us truly knows his or her end, other than that God has appointed it (Hebrews 9:27). But there is still a lesson in this proverb: that as we inch ever further into life, the experience of living should make us bolder in the face of things that beset us.
A Christian’s life is a process. Although we are raised from baptism’s watery grave to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4), we are not reborn in Christ knowing fully how that new life ought to be lived. Like any infant, we first crawl, then take halting, stumbling steps, and finally become adept at walking before we are prepared to run.
In theory, that means we should improve as we go along. The longer we live in Christ, the more we should develop in Christ-likeness. That’s why the Scriptures contain so many admonitions for us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), to “increase in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10), and to “abound in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in love” (2 Corinthians 8:7).
Growth like this, however, doesn’t happen by accident. We actually have to work at it. Yes, I know, the prevailing philosophy in religion these days is that it shouldn’t be something to which one has to apply any effort, but the New Testament is clear to the contrary.
Consider this verse: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). The Greek word translated “be diligent” isspoudazo, from which we get our modern English word speed. Literally, it means “make haste” or “hurry up,” but in usage it also has the connotation of “apply oneself” or “endeavor with urgency.”
It’s the same word the Hebrew writer uses to direct, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:11). Peter uses it in a similar context:“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble” (2 Peter 1:10). Again, “Be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14).
If we would be servants approved of God, the Holy Spirit is telling us through these inspired men, we must apply ourselves diligently to the task. That diligence — that urgency of endeavor — should permeate everything we do, and should increase in acuteness as we progress through life, even as an athlete strains even more insistently as he approaches the finish line of the race, or the end zone of the gridiron, not wanting to be denied the victory he has striven so hard to achieve.
Like those proverbial old tigers, we Christians should grow all the more fierce in our pursuit of righteousness as we see the clock of life ticking away. As Paul wrote, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind” (Philippians 3:14-15).
Michael D. Rankins, “The Lord’s Day,” August 15, 2004
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