5:7,8
His wife, Sapphira then came in, oblivious to what had happened. Peter asks her directly if the money they gave was the total sum, to which she answers yes. Note that husband and wife are held jointly responsible. They were a partnership.
5:9-11
“How could you conspire?” Again there is emphasis on the joint responsibility. Male-female relationships were different in those days, but not quite in the way we sometimes imagine. Wives were not mere chattels. Indeed, one of the reasons the gospel was attractive to women in the Roman empire was that it gave value to women that society did not. Anywar, unfortunately in this case they were united in seeking to deceive. So Sapphira fell dead like her husband. The young men carried her out as well, and buried her alongside her husband.
Great fear seized the church, and others who heard about the events. One cannot imagine a church today having the same effect. Now, of course, we don’t want to have people dying, but we should be churches that follow the Lord, not organisations that follow the world.
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