In the early days of the movement known as The Way, this congregation swelled rapidly from 120 members to around 5,000 members. Because the Sanhedrin hated Jesus and his followers, any Jew who converted to following Jesus was ejected from the Jewish temple and ordered to be shunned by all devout Jews. This had a major impact on the economy of any Jewish family who became followers of Jesus.
To help these people, as well as the lame and widows who joined them, the “church” took up collections and dispersed goods and funds to those in need. These collections were not forced, but rather the followers of Jesus gave freely out of a generous heart. Acts 4:32 says, “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own but they had all things in common.”
This was not a new concept, I Chronicles 29:14-16 states that possessions come from God, belong to God, and should therefore be offered back to God when there is need. It is said that a hand opened in giving is ready to receive as well. A hand closed in greed cannot receive anything.
As followers began selling possessions to supply the need; there was, no doubt, some recognition of these gifts by the Apostles.
Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of land, but chose to hold back part of the proceeds for themselves (Acts 5:1-11) . They told the Apostles that what they gave was the full price they received. Why did they do that?
The Bible does not say what their motivation was. We could assume that Ananias and Sapphira had good intentions at the first, but when they had all that money in their hands Satan tempted them (Acts 5:3) to hold some back. Satan is always working to impede and discredit the followers of Jesus.
The sin these two committed is two-fold. First is greed: they decided they needed some of that money more than the rest of their brethren did. Second, and more importantly, they lied to the Apostles and to the Holy Spirit. Had it been allowed to stand, the deliberate act of deceit would have dishonored the pure and unselfish acts of the other brethren. Peter confronted Ananias when he brought the gift. Three hours later Sapphira came around and repeated her husband’s lie. As a result, each of them dropped dead. As news of this circulated among the believers it served as a powerful warning against attempting to deceive God.
The thing is that had Ananias and Sapphira sold their possession and brought a portion, saying “We wish to donate this much money”, all would have been fine. Peter even told Ananias, “While it remained was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?” (Acts 5:4). Clearly they had not been compelled to sell or to give. Whether they did sell to help or to acquire praise from the Apostles and the congregation we do not know. But when they chose to deceive by claiming that what they gave was the full amount of the sale, they stepped out in rebellion.
This was a time of fresh beginnings. It was important to emphasize a standard of holiness and purity. God’s judgement here should be taken as a reminder that God hates sin. Our society has learned to dismiss sin as unimportant, but God’s opinion has not changed.
Attempting to lie to God is never a good idea. Take a lesson from these two and always approach God and God’s people with an honest heart.
