5:3,4
Peter then confronts Ananias with the situation, namely that he has lied to the Holy Spirit. Note that the “crime” isn’t that Ananias kept half the money, but that he was claiming to have given all of it. Peter makes it clear that Ananias was under no compulsion to have sold the land in the first place, and having done so was perfectly at liberty to keep half, or even all, of the proceeds of the sale. So he lied to both the church and to God. If we tell lies to people, we are also lying to the Lord.
5:5,6
Ananias then fell down and died.We are not told exactly how this happened, whether it was from shock, or whether God struck him dead. Taken together with 5:10, I tend to think that it was God who struck him down. Great fear seized the community. The fear of God is an essential part of a healthy church. God is to be taken seriously. The church often does not do this. Some young men then came and took the body away.
No comments:
Post a Comment