Peter said…"How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?"
Here a married couple - Ananias and Sapphira - conspire to deceive the apostles. They sold some land, kept back a portion of the money, and acted as if they were giving the full amount to help the needy.
Their mistake was not in keeping a portion of the land sale. The sin was in attempting to deceive God – You have not lied to men but to God.
Peter asks a pointed question – What made you think of doing such a thing?
Like we say, What were you thinking? Why didn’t they just say here is part of what we received? Why lie?
The most obvious answer is they wanted to appear more generous than they actually were. They wanted to be applauded in the same way as those who gave everything, when in fact they hadn’t. This required a lie.
A lie that cost them their lives!
But Ananias and Sapphira are surely not the only ones in the past 2,000 years who wanted to appear more religious than they actually were. The only ones who lied…
But they are the only ones we know of who immediately died because of it. Why?
This is a test. A test of the authority and discernment of the apostles! At this time, the validity of Faith and so the entire future of Christianity rests on the authority of the apostles' witness.
For now, so much depends on their credibility God grants them infallible discernment. It was of paramount importance that no fraud be perpetrated on the apostles. They cannot be fooled or discredited in any way for it is the Holy Spirit working in them.
How could you agree to test the Spirit…?
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