Acts 5:1-11
5 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
The story about Ananias and Sapphira is a strange one. It is not easy for us to understand what happened. But it is a very important story. Christians are not perfect! Some Christians can do very bad things. Even in the first church, there were Christians who were not honest.
Like Barnabas, Ananias and Sapphira sold their land for money. But Barnabas had given all the money to the apostles. Ananias brought only some of the money to them. But that was not the problem. As Peter said, the money belonged to Ananias and Sapphira. The Greek word for ‘kept’ here can also mean ‘stole’. Perhaps, before they sold the land, they had agreed to give all the money.
But they had also lied. They did not give all the money to help the poor people. Instead, they wanted to seem generous. Nobody forced them to sell their land. It belonged to them. They did not need to lie. But Ananias had let Satan tell him what to do. He had promised to give all the money to God. Because he did not do this, he had lied to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. So, he had lied to God.
Ananias knew that he had done a very wicked thing. Sometimes, people just pretend to be good. They do this so that they look important. God hates this. Jesus talked about this many times. (For example, look at Luke 6:42; 12:1, 56; 13:15.) When Ananias died, everyone was afraid. They buried him immediately.
In verses 7-11, Peter gave to Sapphira a chance to tell the truth. He asked her how much money she and Ananias had received for the land. But she lied. Ananias had lied. In this way, they had tried to ‘tempt’ the Lord’s Spirit. Like Ananias, Sapphira fell down and she died. Again, everyone was very afraid.
In verse 11, Luke uses the Greek word for ‘church’ (ekklesia). This is the first time that he uses it in Acts. Christians needed to trust each other. If they did not do this, maybe the church could not continue. Satan was trying to destroy the church. Already, the believers had enemies who were attacking them from outside the church. But now, Satan was working by means of their own members.
God hates lies. He wants his church to be pure (with nothing bad in it). Peter knew this. The church was in danger if believers were not honest. He gave to both Ananias and Sapphira a chance to repent. But they did not repent. So, by his words, Peter showed that this was a very serious thing. He showed it to everyone. It is very important to be honest always.