Between God and Us

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

BETWEEN GOD AND US

Acts 5:1-6

5:1 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 to men 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 the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

NIV

This is an account of two people we know nothing about except this account and it is one that we all know about. The point here is that their land was their land and they were under no compulsion by anyone to sell the land for the present need of others, but they pretended to act under the influence of the Holy Spirit, perhaps for the sake of appearing spiritual, or at least to have a good reputation among the other believers. If they actually were under the influence of the Holy Spirit they would not have conspired to hold back a portion of the price for their own need, which actually shows us they were not willing to trust in the providence of God as the others did. Peter asked him what made him think of doing such a thing. Ananias certainly could have said that he sold his land, and he wants to give half the money to the common good, but he made it look like he gave it all. Our life lesson here is all about the appearance of giving. The scripture is clear that in our giving we should not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing especially when we give to the needy. This would certainly apply to this case, of selling our possessions and bringing all the proceeds into the church for the common good of all. But of course we don’t do that, we just bring a tenth, some of the net, some of the gross, some perhaps just a portion of that. But the point is that we should not let anyone know what we give. Ananias made it a point to tell them it was the whole price of his land, he was making sure they knew it gave it all, and how much he gave. We should not be letting anyone know, not even the church. Someone in the church is keeping a record of our giving if we either write checks or put our name on the offering envelope, so we can have a tax exemption form at the end of the year.  We are claiming our giving to someone, perhaps pretending to be tithers, or at the least to be givers, when we are holding back the whole of what we should be giving as inspired by the Holy Spirit. If we tell anyone, our friends, or fellow believers that we are tithers, we have stepped outside the line and we are letting our left hand know what our right hand is doing. It is not a single persons business as to what we give, but it is God’s. Our giving should be done in secret, so then God who sees our giving will reward us. When we broadcast our giving as Ananias was doing, looking for the recognition of men, we are in deep trouble with God. Ananias was struck dead, so far none of us that we know of has been struck dead because of the amount we give. But we should take note, all of what we have is ours and is at our deposal, we can give whatever we can give, and it is strictly between us and God.