Seeing others sell their land and give the money to the church, Ananias and Sapphira decide to the same (Acts 5:1-11).  But they choose to keep some of the money.  Nothing wrong so far.  But then they further decide to pretend that they are giving all of the money.  They decide to deceive the church.  They choose to lie.

When Peter confronts them, he makes clear that they are not merely lying to the church, but by application they are lying to God.  They are testing God by sinning in his face.  There is no fear of God before their eyes.  And God punishes their sin by taking their lives.  Great fear came upon the church.  What Ananias and Sapphira lacked, the rest of the church now received in abundance.

This passage is a stern reminder that God is not to be trifled with.  He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  He is our Creator.  And as such, we owe him respect, reverence, awe, fear, and obedience.  How dare we ever think that we can sin against God, and God won’t notice!  How dare we ever consider testing God by parading our sin in his face!  We dare not treat God flippantly.  Those who are living in sin are living in dangerous territory.

We live in a world that thinks nothing of sin.  Sin is celebrated in the media and everywhere you look.  And this carefree attitude toward sin has in too many ways infiltrated the church.  We need a fresh dose of the fear of God.  We need to take sin seriously – like God does.  We may need to repent and seek God’s forgiveness.  We need to pursue righteousness.  We need to live in the fear of the Lord.