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. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back some of the money you received for the land?”
—Acts 5:2-3
This is one of the Bible’s most troubling stories. Most Christians skim over or ignore it because they don’t know what to do with it. They worry Ananias and Sapphira’s story suggests sin will cause God to strike them dead or otherwise severely punish them. Because of the new covenant, God does not discipline Christians out of His wrath, but there must be a particular reason this story was kept in the canon.
Scholars suggest the story is significant because of Ananias and Sapphira’s specific sin. As Peter implies, the problem is not that they kept back money from the sale of their property. In verse 4, he points out that the money was already theirs before the land was sold. The issue is that they lied to the apostles and, by extension, the Holy Spirit.
This, however, brings up another question. How can God be lied to if He already knows everything? Scholars speculate this is part of why He allowed the couple’s deaths. After all, if God already knows everything, He knows when He is being lied to. He also abhors sin and hypocrisy, two activities Ananias and Sapphira engaged in with full knowledge. That knowledge may suggest unrepentance, which adds to the seriousness of their crime.
What can Christians learn from this story? Again, the lesson is not that God will strike dead anyone who sins. Rather, the lesson is to avoid hypocrisy because it is lying to ourselves and God. The story also cautions us to repent when we sin, understand the seriousness of the sin and avoid it in the future.
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