Giving to God with a Pure Heart (Part II) (Acts 5)

The story of Ananias and Saphira, in Acts 5, is not typical [art of the pantheon of giving passages in the Bible. However, in my years of experience Acts 5 comes up often in discussing the Bible and fundraising.

Last week we noted the difficulties in understanding what happened in Acts 5, with Ananias and Saphira. We noted the parallels to Achan’s sin and concluded that there is something going on in addition to the obvious issue of lying.

Members of the growing group of passionate Jesus-followers, Ananias and Sapphira were apparently also people of means. After all, they owned a piece of property. They sold the property in order to do what others had done: share with fellow believers the money they got for the land.

But Ananias and Sapphira kept back a portion of the sale price. The Greek verb (ἐνοσφίσατο) describing their action is one of the keys to unlocking the passage.

The verb is also used in Titus when Paul admonished slaves not to pilfer or steal from their masters:

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal (μὴ νοσφιζομένους) from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. (Titus 2:9-10 NIV)

A Christian slave would indeed be a bad witness to the gospel if he stole money from the master. The parallel is clear: Ananias was in fact stealing money; he was taking something that belonged to God.

Yet this explanation only makes sense if the entire amount of the land sale was intended to be a gift. But it’s not clear what kept back means here (Acts 5:2 NIV). Maybe Ananias and Sapphira had made some kind of contractual commitment to the apostles.

Or maybe all the believers had made a public and corporate commitment to give to the community all the funds from a sale of land. It’s also possible that Ananias and Sapphira had made the commitment in their hearts, but after receiving the cash, they decided to renege on that commitment and, in some sense, steal a portion of the money from the sale.

We don’t know how much they kept back; we do know Sapphira was in on the plan. Ananias and Sapphira laid at the apostles’ feet the funds from the sale—minus the amount they decided to keep for themselves. It seems clear that Ananias and Sapphira wanted to appear that they had given the full amount of the sale price….

Barnabas: An Example to Follow

Peter first spoke to Ananias alone. The rebuke seems heavy handed, but apparently Luke wasn’t concerned. He was much more focused on reporting the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.

The lie would never have been detected had it not been for the Spirit’s intervention:

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? 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." (Acts 5:3-4 NIV)

The result of Ananias’s lie was dramatic and troubling: he fell dead not at the hands of Peter, but as a result of his own deceitful actions. Not addressing the agent of death, Luke was more concerned about the community:

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. (Acts 5:5-6 NIV)

For whatever reasons, Sapphira did not learn about her husband’s death. While her unawareness is troubling—and unexplained by Luke—what matters more is that Sapphira had the opportunity to be honest but instead continued the lie:

About three hours later, his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?"
"Yes," she said, "that is the price."
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."
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. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. (Acts 5:7-11 NIV)

This passage is high-order drama. In fact, it almost reads like a movie script. Before getting swept up in that idea, though, let me suggest two points that are essential to our understanding why Luke included the account of Ananias and Sapphira.

First, Luke compared Ananias and Sapphira to Barnabas. Unfortunately, the paragraph break interrupts the story, but it seems clear that the bit about Barnabas at the end of Acts 4 is an essential part of the Ananias and Sapphira story and should not be separated from it.

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet. (Acts 4:33-37 NIV)

Barnabas sold a piece of property and took the proceeds of the sale to the apostles to meet the needs of the church. Luke presented Barnabas’s action as an act of righteousness, an act that set the tone for the dramatic and infamous scene we’re looking at today.

To contrast Barnabas’s actions (Acts 4:37) with that of Ananias and Sapphira, Luke used nearly the exact same phrasing at the end of Acts 4:37 and Acts 5:2.

sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

u`pa,rcontoj auvtw/| avgrou/ pwlh,saj h;negken to. crh/ma kai. e;qhken pro.j tou.j po,daj tw/n avposto,lwn (Acts 4:37 )

but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet.

kai. evnosfi,sato avpo. th/j timh/j( suneidui,hj kai. th/j gunaiko,j( kai. evne,gkaj me,roj ti para. tou.j po,daj tw/n avposto,lwn e;qhken (Acts 5:2)

Barnabas’s act of generosity stands in sharp contrast to Ananias and Sapphira’s act. This difference explains Peter’s response to Ananias’s offering: Peter was speaking to a much more serious concern.

In addition to lying and embezzling money, the couple had acted in a very hypocritical fashion attempting to portray themselves as sacrificially bringing the full value of their property sale to the apostles just as Barnabas had.

As the bulleted items below indicate, this contrast between Barnabas’s gift and Ananias and Sapphira’s gift brings into focus several important truths found in Peter’s discussion with Ananias:

• Satan would like to cause us to live in deceit, and he uses money, its power, and its false promises as a tool (Acts 5:3).
• We can’t deceive God about what we do out of the sight of others (v. 4).
• What we do with our wealth/money is a barometer of our heart (v. 3).
• Hypocrisy within a Christian community causes breakdown in that community. The stealing of money and lying are sinful acts, but the effort to appear godly while acting deceitfully greatly troubled God and His apostle Peter (vv. 5, 11).

“The Whole Church”

In addition to making a comparison between Barnabas and the hypocritical couple, Luke focused on the effect of the incident on the community.

His fellow Christians responded with amazement and fear, a response suggesting that the Holy Spirit was interested in more than merely punishing Ananias and Sapphira or strengthening Peter’s leadership. Instead, the Holy Spirit did this amazing and fearsome deed for the community of faith, for the church.

In fact, the first time the word church appears in Acts is Acts 5:11—Great fear seized the whole church (NIV)—and I’m sure it’s not coincidental that the word church was used here. The effects of Ananias and Sapphira’s behavior would apparently be a threat to the life of the church, thereby justifying God’s strong response.

Simply put, the deceit, lying, false piety, and hypocrisy of Ananias and Sapphira were dangerous to the health of the church especially in the first century when the church was being birthed. The church was God’s primary means of delivering good news to the surrounding world.

The lying, false piety, and deception prompted by the desire for money were, together, a serious threat to the church’s mission. Christ-followers today must take pause before that truth.

While efforts to dismiss the story continue in some academic circles, let me suggest three points we can take away from the passage:

• Giving is not an action for public consumption designed to give oneself status in the community as a philanthropic person. Ananias and Sapphira tried to make it look like they were giving more than they were. 
• Giving is a matter of the heart, and you can’t hide from God what is in your heart. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will reveal your heart to one or more of God’s people just as He did for Peter. Remember, too, that God knows when we are holding back our heart from Him.
• God does not like hypocrisy, and one reason is, it undermines the church community in very significant ways. The people of God are not well served by members of the community hoarding material wealth while trying to look like gracious and sacrificial givers.

When we’re on the road less traveled, we remember that when we give to the church, we are giving a gift to God. We aren’t investing in our church; we are giving to God.

With our giving, we are joining God’s work in the world through the church. Our giving is to draw attention to Jesus Christ, not to our generosity. Yet our generosity—like Barnabas’s—can be a testimony and witness to Christ’s work in our life.

Ananias and Sapphira, however, were not giving financially to the early church hoping to see a good kingdom return. If that were the case, changing the amount of their “investment” would have been perfectly fine.

These Acts 5 givers wanted to create a false impression of their generosity. We can’t hide from God the condition of our heart, though, and the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira indicate how seriously God takes our giving and our sincerity.

The road less traveled focuses on the giver’s transformed heart, not on the amount of the gift. In light of that truth, may pastors and Christian leaders seize the opportunity to teach the important role a transformed heart plays in our giving.

Giving is not done for show or to look good in front of our peers. Our giving is to be an expression of our love for God, an expression of our love overflowing from a heart He has transformed.