THE FEAR OF GOD

A first reading of this text may leave us with a sense of shock and alarm. The sudden death of a man and his wife within the believing community is disturbing, and the event created ‘great fear’ at the time (see v. 11). The sin of this couple was not the fact that they withheld some of the proceeds of the sale of their land, but that they concealed this from the apostles and, as Peter says, lied to God (v. 4).

Perhaps we should hear this tragic and disturbing story as a sobering commentary on Jesus’ warning that we ‘cannot serve both God and money.’1 This is precisely what Ananias and Sapphira attempted to do and their calm determination to compromise their loyalty led them into deception and hypocrisy. Is this incident really as strange and remote from the reality of our churches’ practices as it might seem at first glance? Justo Gonzalez comments that if everyone in our churches who lies were to drop dead ‘our membership would be reduced drastically!’2 His statement applies in general to the absence of truth in many of our superficial conversations, but it is especially relevant to the way in which we handle money and talk about it.

The issue raised by this tragic incident is perhaps not as remote from our reality as we might have assumed. Indeed, in a world in bondage to the idolatry of Mammon we may need the shock of this passage to awaken us to the peril of deceiving our brothers and sisters and forgetting the holiness of the God who demands truth in every sphere of life.

Make Frances Ridley Havergal’s hymn, ‘Take my life, and let it be,’ your prayer.