Proclamation:
“Now
a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of
property. 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 … You have not lied just to human
beings but to God.’ When Ananias heard
this, he feel down and died. … About three hours later his wife came in, not
knowing what had happened. Peter asked
her, ‘Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?’ ‘Yes,’ she
said, ‘that is the price.’ Peter said to
her, ‘How could you … Listen! The feet
of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out
also.’ At that moment she fell down at
his feet and died. Then the young men …
buried her beside her husband. Great
fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.” Acts 5:1-11 (NIV)
Explanation:
All
of the believers at that time were on one accord. (Acts 4:32) So that there would be no needy among them,
from time to time those who owned property would sell some of their property
and bring the full price that they had received and place it at the feet of the
apostles. (Acts 4:34-37) When Ananias
and Sapphira sold their property, they kept part of the profits for themselves
and brought the rest to the church and lied claiming that they had brought the
church the full price. They came to the
church separately but they both lied and were struck down where they stood.
Application:
There
is nothing in The Bible which says that we have to sell all that we have and
give it to the church. In fact, there
are those Bible scholars, like J. Vernon McGee, who believe that the giving of
tithes and sacrificial offerings were required under the Mosaic Law which does
not apply to us today. We are to give to
The Lord God as He has prospered us (1 Corinthians 16:2) and as we determine in
our hearts the amount which we can give cheerfully, for God loves a cheerful
giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7) The problem
here is that Ananias and Sapphira lied about their giving. The sin is in lying about the amount that we
give, or claiming that we are giving a tithe, one tenth of our gross earnings
or income, and not really doing so. God
cannot be mocked, we will pay for our sins (Galatians 6:7) even though the sins
will not affect our salvation thanks to Christ.
