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It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. [Note. - There is ample evidence that Paul himself narrates these details of his conversion (Acts 26:14), and that their proper place is not here. They will, however, be considered here, and reference made to this place from Acts 22:10; Acts 26:14.] Saul, when now he was called Paul, and after he had been some while in the service of Christ, himself tells us what passed in those wonderful moments when Christ and the Spirit wrestled with him thrown prostrate to the earth. They are never forgotten by him, nor will he for a moment try to hide those details describing Heaven's remonstrances with him where they might most infer humiliation to himself. The humiliation of Saul at this time has its counterpart in some sort in the condescending-ness of Christ. The risen Lord will still use human language and human figure, even to employing a proverb. The proverb needs no explanation, and the interpretation of it needs only illustration and enforcement. And it may be led up to profitably by inferior applications of it which none will gainsay. How, then, will they be able to gainsay that illustration of it and that application of it which Jesus himself thinks it worth while to utter from an open window of heaven?

I. IT IS HARD TO KICK AGAINST THE EARTHLY LOT ASSIGNED TO US. That lot is a very complex thing, but it is made up of some very manifest elements. It is a combination of the date in time's long calendar at which our life is placed, of the bodily and the mental endowments which we own, of the circumstances and surroundings which we inherit, and of the very dispositions which belonged to those who went before us - our parents' and theirs. None can give any account of these elements, but every man has to use them and to seek to use them to the best advantage. Some of them no man ever finds fault with or murmurs because of them, or most rarely. Very, very few ever complain that they live now, for instance, and did not live long ago - that they live now and not rather a century or two hence. They see, they feel that to do this were insanity itself: and they do not kick against their lot in this respect. Yet they often do in other respects. Well, this is hard - hard as for the bird of plumage to beat against the wires of its cage; nay, harder far than that. It is hard for loss of time, for loss of temper, for loss of strength, for loss of trusting loving obedience, and because no good can come of it, no success can be gained in the vain, Utopian, and worse than foolish struggle. Let every man struggle in his lot to improve himself, and he will not fail to improve it also. But let him never "kick" against it; for so, if hurt at all, he hurts himself the more. He "kicks against the pricks."

II. IT IS HARD TO KICK AGAINST DUTY. The discipline of duty may often be painful at present. There is none, however, more strengthening and health-giving. Many a heavy burden becomes lighter if borne manfully. It always becomes more irritating in proportion as it is not willingly taken up and borne. And duty knows how to take keen revenge. When its obligations are only partially and grudgingly discharged, the penalty it assigns is the misery of utter dissatisfaction; and when they are altogether neglected, the penalty is a forfeiture of unknown amount and kind.

III. IT IS HARD TO KICK AGAINST CONSCIENCE. If the conscience is alive and in full life, to sin against it in both disobeying it and also taking the offensive, makes its reproach tenfold. If it be already half dead, it hastens its destruction for the present life; and if it be "on the point of death," the death-stroke now falls.

IV. IT IS HARD TO KICK AGAINST ANY FORCE THAT IS PLAINLY GREATER IN DEGREE OR THAT IS SUPERIOR IN KIND. If it be only greater in degree, the peril lies in the inevitable mercilessness of the opponent. He holds the vain struggler in his grip. And if it be a greater force because it is superior in kind, then he who struggles, struggles "against his own soul," and drives the deadly disease within.

V. But all these are faint warnings of what hardness may mean, WHEN A MAN'S SOUL AND ETERNAL LIFE, CHRIST AND THE SPIRIT, are on the one side; and the man himself, driven in darkness, error, and recklessness, is on the other.

1. It is hard, intrinsically so, hard on every account and in every bearing of it, to go against the interest of your own soul. The soul is so inestimably valuable, the injury so inestimably cruel. Eternal life is so unboundedly to be desired, the loss of it so unboundedly to be dreaded and wailed over. Saul was doing this very thing, beneath all other guise and disguise, when his career was stopped. If he could have had his way, his way shut him right out from "life, life eternal," and led him straightest path to death. And all the while he had been resisting light and evidence, miracles and signs and mighty wonders of apostles and of Stephen, which had availed with others; he was kicking against the highest welfare and interests of himself. Convictions are some of our strongest friends, and to kick against them is to inflict some of the keenest of pain and most cruel of injury upon self.

2. It is hard, essentially so, to resist the hand as kind as it is strong, as strong as it is kind, of Jesus. "Strong to save" is, indeed, his truest name and his best-loved name. But if he is to the last refused in this force, it must be, alas! he is swift to destroy. It is especially hard to resist Jesus:

(1) Because he means nothing but kindness.

(2) Because his meaning makes no mistake, incurs no slip nor charge of good intention only, and he does nothing but kindness.

(3) Because he first did so much and suffered so much for one only purpose - that he might be qualified to show that kindness to the full.

(4) Because his is the initiative always, in proffering that kindness to those whose initiative always is the front of hostility to himself.

(5) Because all his kind meaning and his kind doing are in the train of perfect knowledge. He knows all that we shall want to bear us through and to bear us up on high, all that we shall want to save us from falling through and falling into "the lowest hell." What folly we often observe it to be to stand up against or to neglect knowledge superior to our own! But oh! but what extent and what kind of superior knowledge is this?

"No eye but his might ever bear
To gaze all down that drear abyss,
Because none ever saw so clear
The shore beyond of endless bliss!"

"The giddy waves so restless hurled,
The vexed pulse of this feverish world,
He views and counts with steady sight,
Used to behold the Infinite!"

(6) Because him refused, him lost, there is no other can plead our cause in our last extremity, there is no other Savior! When such a one speaks, touches, urges, then the sinner who resists him is one who has no mercy, no mercy at all on himself, "body or soul."

3. It is hard, most ruinously so, to resent the persuading address of the Spirit. Hardening as it is to neglect the lessons of reason, the persuasions of the affection of others, the call of duty, the dictates of conscience, and the Word and work and impassioned invitation of Jesus, this is the worst of all - to resist and reject the Spirit. For he is the life itself. Light and Life are his twofold name. All round creation light will be attended ere long with symptoms of life; and nowhere round the whole sweep of creation does consent to dwell with perfect darkness. They seem almost synonymous, perhaps, but as they are not the same in nature, so neither can they be counted the same in grace. And still, therefore, this twofold name speaks something of the quality and prerogative of the Spirit. He brings Christ himself and his truth and his cross to the sinner's heart, and if he is refused, then finally all is refused. Hence the awful trembling emphasis which Scripture lays on the pleading exhortation that we slight not, grieve not, quench not, the Spirit. And hard indeed it must be counted to kick against him.

(1) He is so silent a Friend.

(2) He is so gentle a Friend,

(3) He is so close a Friend.

(4) He is so sensitive a Friend.

(5) He is so condescending a Friend - in him it is that God dwells in the humble and contrite sinner's heart.

(6) He is so cheerful and gladdening and sanctifying a Friend.

(7) He more than halves our griefs - he dries them up. He more than doubles our joy - he multiplies it a millionfold, till it is already "full of glory." His sympathy is perfect.

(8) He is our indispensable Friend, if we are to be loosed from sin, to be created anew, to take hold of Jesus, and to find salvation. Against the united, loving, determined, and predetermined force of Jesus and the Spirit, 'twas hard indeed for Saul to strive. Love and. power amazing grace! - have hold upon him nor mean to relax their gracious grasp If he struggles, he but prolongs his own fierce inner conflict, multiples his own subsequent pangs of memory and conscience. So Saul and every converted man are in a hand from which no power shall ever pluck them. - B.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

WEB: He said, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.