Today, July 14, 2026

King James Version (en)

IS STRICKEN DOWN TO THE EARTH (Acts of the Apostles, 9:5)

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.

Comments:

Wesley's Notes

To kick against the goads - is a Syriac proverb, expressing an attempt that brings nothing but pain.

Notes

The words of the risen Christ, whom Paul met on the Damascus road, make a twofold impression. On the one hand, everything is simple and clear: it is useless to kick against the goads, God is in any case stronger than a human being, and it is not for a human being, even one as gifted in every respect as Paul, to resist the Kingdom entering the world. And yet: are there so few people resisting it? Does Christ appear to all of them as He appeared to Paul? The answer is obvious. Only one question remains: why is it so? Can the Risen One not appear to every doubter and even every opponent, so that, having run into Him as into the goad, the person would be convinced and turn from an opponent into a faithful follower, as happened with Paul?

If we consider this question, to use a modern expression, from a technical point of view, there is no problem here. The problem lies elsewhere: in a person’s spiritual choice and in the freedom of his will. The Kingdom cannot be imposed by force; it can only be accepted voluntarily. And not because an unbelieving person cannot see it, for if God wills, anyone will see the Kingdom, but because the structure of the Kingdom is formed by relationships of love that bind its inhabitants with God and with Christ, all of them with one another, and finally Christ Himself with His heavenly Father. Here one cannot get anywhere without goodwill: one cannot be made loving by force, and it is impossible to love against one’s will.

But what then about Paul, who ran into Christ and His love as into the goad? Where is freedom here? At first glance it seems that in this case there is no question of any freedom, if not for one “but”: Paul, while still Saul, had already made his choice. A choice in favor of God, the Torah, and the path of righteousness, as he understood them, of course. Now God only had to correct his ideas about Himself, about the Messiah, about the Torah, and about the path of righteousness. And He does this, quickly and decisively, in keeping with the character and personal qualities of the one whose path He wants to set straight. Having become Paul, Saul changed radically, qualitatively: he was joined to the life of that Kingdom about which previously he could only dream. But his spiritual vector remained the same; in this respect he did not betray himself. He only walked his path to the end, and at the end found what he had been seeking: the Messiah and the Kingdom.

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Mary

Biblical passages devoted to the Most Holy Mother of God divide into three main groups: direct references to the Virgin Mary in the Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles; prophecies about the Virgin who would become the Mother of Christ; and biblical symbols and types that speak of the Mother of God and her participation in the work of salvation. The New Testament references are few, but they show Mary's presence throughout the Gospel story.

FAQ

Why is there such a difference between the Hebrew and Greek chronologies? How can it be explained that initially the Lord creates people and gives them the commandment to multiply (which for some reason they did not do while in Paradise), and then in the 2nd chapter He creates the woman? Does this mean that the 2nd chapter duplicates the first?

Biblical texts existed for a long time in the form of separate fragments, and only later were they gathered into unified scrolls (and eventually into a book)...


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