4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
4 As he fell to the ground, he heard a voice: "Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?"
4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?"
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
21 Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose.
21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
21 For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.
(Read Philippians 1:21-26)
Death is a great loss to a carnal, worldly man, for he loses all his earthly comforts and all his hopes; but to a true believer it is gain, for it is the end of all his weakness and misery. It delivers him from all the evils of life, and brings him to possess the chief good. The apostle's difficulty was not between living in this world and living in heaven; between these two there is no comparison; but between serving Christ in this world and enjoying him in another. Not between two evil things, but between two good things; living to Christ and being with him. See the power of faith and of Divine grace; it can make us willing to die. In this world we are compassed with sin; but when with Christ, we shall escape sin and temptation, sorrow and death, for ever. But those who have most reason to desire to depart, should be willing to remain in the world as long as God has any work for them to do. And the more unexpected mercies are before they come, the more of God will be seen in them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Acts 9:4
Commentary on Acts 9:1-9
(Read Acts 9:1-9)
So ill informed was Saul, that he thought he ought to do all he could against the name of Christ, and that he did God service thereby; he seemed to breathe in this as in his element. Let us not despair of renewing grace for the conversion of the greatest sinners, nor let such despair of the pardoning mercy of God for the greatest sin. It is a signal token of Divine favour, if God, by the inward working of his grace, or the outward events of his providence, stops us from prosecuting or executing sinful purposes. Saul saw that Just One, 14; 26:13. How near to us is the unseen world! It is but for God to draw aside the veil, and objects are presented to the view, compared with which, whatever is most admired on earth is mean and contemptible. Saul submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lord Jesus would have him to do. Christ's discoveries of himself to poor souls are humbling; they lay them very low, in mean thoughts of themselves. For three days Saul took no food, and it pleased God to leave him for that time without relief. His sins were now set in order before him; he was in the dark concerning his own spiritual state, and wounded in spirit for sin. When a sinner is brought to a proper sense of his own state and conduct, he will cast himself wholly on the mercy of the Saviour, asking what he would have him to do. God will direct the humbled sinner, and though he does not often bring transgressors to joy and peace in believing, without sorrows and distress of conscience, under which the soul is deeply engaged as to eternal things, yet happy are those who sow in tears, for they shall reap in joy.