I used to say insulting things about Jesus. I tried to hurt his followers, and I even used violence against them. But God had mercy on me because I did those things without knowing any better. I wasn’t a believer.
We fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul! Saul! Why are you attacking me? You’re only hurting yourself when you resist me.’
I haven’t yet received these things or reached my goal. But Christ Jesus took hold of me so that I could reach it, and so I keep pushing myself forward to take hold of it.