We might conclude from what precedes that the church was a sinless community at this time. Unfortunately this was not the case. There were sinning saints in it. This episode reveals that God was working dramatically in the church's early days in judgment as well as in blessing. Luke did not idealize his portrait of the early church but painted an accurate picture, warts and all.
5:1-2 "But"introduces another sacrificial act that looked just as generous as Barnabas' (4:37). However in this case the motive was quite different. Ananias' Jewish name means "Yahweh is gracious,"and Sapphira's Aramaic name means "beautiful."Their names proved as ironic as their behavior was hypocritical.
The Greek word nosphizo, ("kept back") also appears at the beginning of the record of Achan's sin in the Septuagint (Josh. 7:1, translated "took"). Ananias presented their gift to the apostles exactly as Barnabas had done (4:37).
5:3-4 Rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to fill him (cf. 2:4; 4:8, 31), Ananias had allowed Satan to control his heart. Ananias' sin was lying. He sought to deceive the Christians by trying to gain a reputation for greater generosity than he deserved. By deceiving the church, Ananias was also trying to deceive the Holy Spirit who indwelt the church. In attempting to deceive the Holy Spirit, he was trying to deceive God. Note the important identification of the Holy Spirit as God in these verses.
His sin was misrepresenting his gift by claiming that it was the total payment that he had received when it was really only part of that.255This is the sin of hypocrisy, a particular form of lying.
"I am a preacher of the Word--a glorious privilege--and if I have prayed once I have prayed a thousand times and said, Don't let me be able to preach unless in the power of the Holy Ghost.' I would rather be struck dumb than pretend it is in the power of the Spirit if it isn't; and yet it is so easy to pretend. It is so easy to come before men and take the place of an ambassador for God, and still want people to praise the preacher instead of giving the message only for the Lord Jesus."256
Achan, as well as Ananias and Sapphira, fell because of the love of material possessions (cf. 1 Tim. 6:10; 2 Tim. 4:10).
"Like Judas, Ananias was covetous; and just as greed of gain lay at the bottom of most of the sins and failures in the Acts--the sin of Simon Magus, the opposition of Elymas, of the Philippian masters' and the Ephesian silversmiths, the shortcomings of the Ephesian converts and the injustice of Felix--so Ananias kept back part of the price."257
Lying to the Holy Spirit is a sin that Christians commit frequently today. When Christians act hypocritically by pretending a devotion that is not theirs, or a surrender of life they have not really made, they lie to the Holy Spirit. If God acted today as He did in the early Jerusalem church, undertakers would have much more work than they do.
5:5 Peter identified Ananias' sin, but God judged it (cf. Matt. 16:19). Luke did not record exactly how Ananias died even though he was a physician. His interest was solely in pointing out that he did die immediately because of his sin.258Ananias' sin resulted in premature physical death. It was a sin unto death (cf. 1 John 5:16; 1 Cor. 11:30).
We should not interpret the fact that God rarely deals with sinners this way as evidence that He cannot or should not. He does not out of mercy. He dealt with Ananias and Sapphira, Achan, Nadab and Abihu, and others severely when He began to deal with various groups of believers. He did so for those who would follow in the train of those judged to illustrate how important it is for God's people to be holy (cf. 1 Cor. 10:6). Furthermore God always deals more severely with those who have greater privilege and responsibility (cf. 1 Pet. 4:17).
5:6 Immediate burial was common in Palestine at this time, as the burial of Jesus illustrates. Evidently some of the younger and stronger believers disposed of Ananias' corpse by preparing it for burial.259Many people were buried in caves or holes in the ground that had been previously prepared for this purpose, as we see in the burials of Lazarus and Jesus.
"Burial in such a climate necessarily followed quickly after death, and such legal formalities as medical certification were not required."260
5:7 The answers to questions such as whether someone tried to find Sapphira to tell her of Ananias' death lay outside Luke's purpose in writing. He stressed that she was as guilty as her husband and so experienced the same fate.
5:8 Peter graciously gave Sapphira an opportunity to tell the truth, but she did not. He did not warn her ahead of time by mentioning her husband's death because he wanted her to tell him the truth. She added a spoken lie to hypocrisy.
5:9-10 Peter's "why"question to her means virtually the same thing as his "why"question to Ananias (v. 3). Putting God to the test means seeing how far one can go in disobeying God--in this case lying to Him--before He will judge (cf. Deut. 6:16; Matt. 4:7). This is very risky business.
Some readers of Acts have criticized Peter for dealing with Sapphira and Ananias so harshly. Nevertheless the text clearly indicates that in these matters Peter was under the Holy Spirit's control (4:31) even as Ananias and Sapphira were under Satan's control (v. 3). Peter had been God's agent of blessing in providing healing to people (3:6), but he was also God's instrument to bring judgment on others, as Jesus Christ had done.
"Peter was severe, and the fate of the two delinquents shocking, but the strictures of Christ on hypocrisy must be borne in mind (Mt. xxiii). . . . The old leaven of the Pharisees' was at work, and for the first time in the community of the saints two persons set out deliberately to deceive their leaders and their friends, to build a reputation for sanctity and sacrifice to which they had no right, and to menace, in so doing, all love, all trust, all sincerity. And not only was the sin against human brotherhood, but against the Spirit of God, so recently and powerfully manifest in the Church."261
5:11 Luke reemphasized the sobering effect these events produced in all who heard about them (v. 5; cf. 2:43). People probably said, "There but for the grace of God go I!"
Here is the first use of the word "church"in Acts.262The Greek word, ekklesia, means "called out assembly."This was a common word that writers often used to describe assemblies of people that met for political and various other types of meetings. The word "church,"like the word "baptism,"can refer to more than one thing. Sometimes it refers to the body of Christ as it has existed throughout history, the universal church. Sometimes it refers to Christians living in various places during one particular time (e.g., the early church). Sometimes it refers to a group of Christians who live in one area at a particular time, a local church. Here it seems to refer to the local church in Jerusalem.
"When Luke speaks of the church' with no qualification, geographical or otherwise, it is to the church of Jerusalem that he refers."263
The writers of Scripture always referred to the church, the body of Christ, as an entity distinct from the nation of Israel. Every reference to Israel in the New Testament refers to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is true in the Old Testament also.264
Ananias and Sapphira presented an appearance of commitment to God that was not true of them. They were insincere, appearing to be one way but really not being that way. Had Ananias and Sapphira never professed to be as committed as they claimed when they brought their gift, God probably would not have judged them as He did. They lacked personal integrity.
"So familiar are we with spots and wrinkles' in the church that we can with difficulty realize the significance of this, the first sin in and against the community. It corresponds to the entrance of the serpent into Eden with the fall of Eve in the OT: and the first fall from the ideal must have staggered the apostles and the multitude. . . . The sin really was not the particular deceit, but the state of heart [cf. v. 3]--hypocrisy and unreality."265
Some interpreters have wondered if Ananias and Sapphira were genuine believers. Luke certainly implied they were; they were as much a part of the church as Barnabas was. Are true Christians capable of deliberate deceit? Certainly they are.266
"It is plain that the New Testament not only teaches the existence of the carnal Christian [1 Cor. 3:1-3; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 5:18] but of true Christians who persisted in their carnality up to the point of physical death [cf. 1 Cor. 3:15; 5:5; 11:30; Heb. 10:29; 1 John 5:16-17].267
