What can God teach us about the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira?
The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 lets us know that despite the explosion of growth in the early church , they had moments of weakness, even gross sin . I believe that their deaths serve as a warning to the Church today, and that God has a lot to teach us—if we are willing to hear: 1. In the church, there are both genuine believers and non-genuine. On the outside, Ananias and Sapphira look just like another church member named Barnabas (introduced in Acts 4 ). Barnabas had just sold his property and brought the money to the apostles, and to the casual observer, Ananias and Sapphira were doing the same thing. But deep in their heart lingered a love of money and a desire for people’s praise. So they conspired together to present a portion of their money while passing it off as the entire amount. This is worlds apart from the attitude of Barnabas, but looks very similar. We may be able to get away with this sort of duplicity for a while, but if someone looks closely,...