February 22, 2023 | Be On Mission
A Case Study In Honesty
Scripture: Acts 5:1-11 (NIV)
1 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. 2 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.
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.
7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?”
“Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”
9 Peter said to her, “How could you conspire to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”
10 At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
Devotional
For the next eight readings we are back to the narrative of the book of Acts, not long after the time of Jesus. We left off with the story of Barnabas the encourager, who willingly sold some land he owned and gave the money to the apostles for distribution to the poor in Jerusalem. As a natural extension of his generosity, Barnabas had great influence in the development of the early church.
By contrast, this passage tells the tragic tale of Ananias and Sapphira. This married couple ended up dead for doing something that looked similar to what Barnabas had done.
They owned some land. Check.
The sold some of the land. Check.
They gave money from the proceeds for the poor. Check.
They pretended to be giving it all, but kept back some for themselves. Uncheck.
The problem wasn’t the amount of the gift, or even the percentage of the gift. The problem was the object of the deception, namely, that they lied to God.
Motives matter. In James 4:2-3, the Bible says, “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Jesus put it like this, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
Once again, compare these two gifts of generosity. Barnabas gave authentically, and for that he helped change the world. Check.
Ananias and Sapphira gave deceptively, and for that they died. Check mate.
Prayer
Lord, I am here in Your holy presence, thinking about honesty. What can I say? I praise you for being the WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. In You is all completeness of honesty. Help me understand honest living. Search my soul. Holy Spirit, I invite You to disarm my evil inner thoughts, remove the desire to be an eyewitness to immorality, heal my itchiness to hear rumors, clean the filthiness of my gossip/bad words and halt my selfish actions. Replace them with Your truths of life so I can be on mission as a faithful witness of Jesus Christ.
Poem
Generosity?
I want to be like Barnabas accessing all his coffer
And sacrificially decides the bounty he can offer
He sells his land, He takes the gain
God’s altar there it will remain
Until it’s needed to sustain
A sister or a brother
Don’t let me be like jealous ones
Who witness gifts of gen’rous sums
And hope to gain a sim’lar fame
With pomp, their own gifts to proclaim
While in their pockets some remains
Thought hidden, greed succumbs
Which will I be? Life giver? Death?
Will my heart pass the test of breadth
Of words I speak, The motive bared
Left hand clueless of righthand share
Or will I covet honored stare
While falsely feigning depth?
