“ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” Gal. 6:7 Message Bible
In today’s Church, the emphasis is on God’s mercy and grace, how easy it is to make God’s holiness seem trivial, or forget that He is righteous and pure. Most importantly, the Church today fails to preach how God hates sin with every fiber of His being.
The sin of hypocrisy and an attempt to deceive God shows the contempt with which Ananias and Sapphira viewed the nature and character of God. They had no fear of God, His Word nor His power. They really did not believe that God could see their hearts and motives.
God’s Word tells us that He hates liars, His anger burns against the wicked every day and those who plot evil in their hearts will be destroyed in an instant. (Prov. 6:12-17, Psalm 7:11)
Hebrews 10:29,31 tells us, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, especially for the person who attempts to insult the Holy Spirit.
The drastic punishment of instant death also served to expose Ananias and Sapphira as show Christians in the midst of God’s presence. Unlike the rest of the church, greed had filled their hearts, along with the desire for recognition, so much so that they shamelessly displayed their religiosity.
Their hidden sins manifested themselves in an act of hypocrisy. There was no fear of God before their eyes (Rom. 3:18), and their unbelief led them to completely doubt God’s power that had been displayed through Peter.
Only an unrepentant heart could prompt such behavior, to mock God.
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.
Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Gal. 5:19-21 NLT
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