Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5

Troubles within the Jerusalem Church: the strange case of Ananias and Sapphira, 1-11

Verses 1-2: The peace, prosperity, and community of goods of the church is now abused. Sin takes its toll. Ananias and Sapphira enter a conspiracy to defraud the church at Jerusalem through a lie. Like Joses Barnabas before them (4:36-37), they sell a possession, bring the money and lay it “at the apostles’ feet.” The fraud was in claiming to give all though only giving a part. It seems they wanted the show – the “glory” –without the sacrifice.

Verse 3: Peter exposes the deception as the work of Satan, the devil, “a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).  Further, the deception is not merely to men, but a “lie to the Holy Ghost.”

Verse 4: Keeping “back part of the price of the land” is not a sin in itself. The possession was their own, and the sale and disposal of income was “in thine own power.” Peter’s commentary emphasizes private ownership and the voluntary nature of the community of goods in the church at Jerusalem. The sin was in the deception, the lie. The lie was not merely in men’s secular matters, but in spiritual matters – “but unto God.” A lie unto the Lord’s church was a lie unto the Lord (Cf. Matthew 10:40-42; 25:40, 45; Luke 10:16; Acts 9:4).

Verses 5-6: The God to whom Ananias lied executed the sentence. Ananias fell down dead at the apostles’ feet, the same place he had brought his gift and his fraud. Despite his deception, they gave a decent burial to one of their own – “the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.”

Verses 7-8: Not knowing the previous events, Sapphira came into the apostles’ presence about three hours later. Peter inquires of her concerning the act of her and Ananias. Though she could have confessed the truth, Sapphira rather sticks to the story they had concocted – “Yea, [we sold it] for so much.”

Verse 9: Here Peter calls the lie an agreeing “together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord” (Cf. Matthew 4:7; Luke 4:12). This tempting, in effect, tested whether God knew all things, and whether they would be found out. Compare I Kings 8:39; II Chronicles 6:30; Proverbs 15:3; Luke 16:15; Acts 1:24; Hebrews 4:12.

• Numbers 32:23 …ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.
• Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
• Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Verse 10: Sapphira is also buried through a kind act by the church “the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.”

Peter plainly declares the sin of this incident – Ananias and Sapphira lied and attempted to deceive even God! The sin was not that they did not sell all. The sin was not that they kept a portion of the sale. The sin was not that they did not give all. At no time were they required to do so.

Verse 11: The details of this incident brought “great fear” – esteem and respect of God, his power, his work, and his dealings with mankind – both within the church and without, “upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.”