The Cost

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

THE COST

Acts 5:7-11

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 agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! 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.

NIV

If it wasn’t bad enough for Ananias to decide to lie about the price he got for his land, he conspired with his wife so that she lied as well, either because she was also greedy as her husband and wanted to keep a portion for themselves or she was being a good wife and lying to protect her husband. It would appear the reason she lied is the first of these two reasons because of the response of Peter. If she was trying to protect her husband we would think Peter would have seen through her lie and made some provision for her. The life lesson we should take away from this event is twofold, first a lesson for husbands and wives, and second our relationship with the Spirit of the Lord. Ananias had a responsibility to Sapphira that he failed to maintain. It was his responsibility to lead her in paths of righteousness not wickedness. It was his responsibility to set an example for her to follow. They were both believers, part of the early church, they has accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as their Savior, yet he did not do what was right in the sight of God. He not only lied to the Spirit of the Lord but he caused his wife to lie as well. We men have a grave responsibility to be the men of God, the husbands we are supposed to be. God holds us men accountable for our families, for our wives, this is the reason we have been given the authority, whether we want it or not. We cannot abstain from either the accountable or the authority. Sapphira was not without some blame either. We do not know if she offered any counsel to Ananias that what he wanted to do was wrong, but we do know she went along with it. In that sense she was being obedient to her husband, but at the same time as we already noted, if that was the case, Peter would have responded accordingly. But she carried the same guilt her husband did. She had the same greed as her husband. Rather than trying to convince him of his error, she agreed to the lie. Whatever kind of love they had for each other, went astray because of the lust for money and their selfishness which was the cause for their conspiring to lie. The second lesson regarding our relationship with the Spirit of the Lord is evident.  It may be possible to lie to one another, but we cannot lie to God. He knows our thoughts, our inner most sins. Even if we try to lie to ourselves about our sin, he still knows all about it. We cannot lie to the Spirit of the Lord about our sin, we must be honest both ourselves and with him. We fail many times in the face of temptation, and we need to see it for what it is, sin. Somehow Ananias and Sapphira failed to see what they were doing as sin, or they were so blinded by Satan they did not see it, which is the case in light of what Peter had said to Ananias about allowing Satan to fill his heart. We cannot afford to allow Satan to blind us about our own sin, we must see the truth of it, repent even if that means daily, and seek forgiveness and try to walk in the path of righteousness. Living an honest life with ourselves and with the Spirit of the Lord. Ananias and Sapphira were not living that honest life and it cost them their lives. Although we may not be struck down dead, we cannot afford the cost of lying to the Spirit of the Lord.