Hard things, or hard doctrines, are those things that prick our conscience because we know we are not living according to these truths. Nephi acknowledged that he had taught “hard things against the wicked, according to the truth,” but the righteous were justified and would “be lifted up at the last day.” He then coined this salient truth, “the guilty taketh the truth to be hard” (v. 2). In modern revelation the Lord warns us to “give heed unto my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword” (D&C 6:2). A two-edged sword cuts whatever it contacts either way it is swung. The word of God or the truth has the same effect. We cannot avoid being affected by it either positively by our taking heed, or negatively by rejecting it. Jesus taught this same doctrine as he attended the Feast of Tabernacles in the last year of his mortal life. He had “walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him” (John 7:1–2).
14 Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
15 And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. [John 7:14–18]
Nephi told his brothers the same thing Jesus told the Jews at the feast; “if ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, and give heed unto it, that ye might walk uprightly before God, then ye would not murmur because of the truth, and say: Thou speakest hard things against us” (1 Nephi 16:3). We too should follow Nephi’s exhortation to his brothers “to keep the commandments of the Lord” (v. 4). As will be seen, the brothers humility and repentance was short lived.