Good morning, everyone.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 5:2, “And [Ananias] kept back part of the proceeds, his wife (Sapphira) also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
Ananias and Sapphira certainly are the poster children of the New Testament of hypocrisy within the church. Directly on the heels of the humility and generosity of Barnabas is their well-known scheme to likewise sell some of what they had and donate the proceeds to the church. However, their actions were tainted with deceit and misrepresentation. But, as there will be ample opportunity in the coming days to address their sinful ways, I wanted to first make mention of some of the good that got corrupted in their downfall.
First, they sold something and gave the money to the church. In this age when more than one-third of regular church attendees do not give any money to church, I would suspect almost no one is selling their possessions for the specific reason of donating the money to their church, regardless of the financial needs of the ministry. Second, Ananias and Sapphira were in on this collusion together. Even disregarding the statistics that say at least 33%, and as many as 50%, of Christian marriages end in divorce, far too many couples are less than supportive of each other in all they do, choosing to disparage or dismiss rather than to encourage and uplift. And finally, they made a promise to God. How many of us have made an outright promise to God, not a commitment or a renewed devotion, but a blatant promise we deemed unbreakable? Unfortunately, Ananias and Sapphira’s promise turned out to be a lie. Perhaps that is what keeps us from making promises to God, our deeper knowledge that we will not be keeping the word we gave.
But, if these three actions, selling and giving to church, wholeheartedly supporting your spouse, and giving your word to God, became the way that you lived, how different would your life be? How much of an impact would you make on your church family if you championed this lifestyle? How much more effective would your church’s ministries be? How much better would your marriage be? How much closer to Christ would your heart be? Maybe Ananias and Sapphira had the right idea, but Satan led them astray. What are you doing with your right ideas?
As we seek Him today, let your actions flow from a clean heart. And let your cleansed heart produce plenty of action.
Have a wonderful Tuesday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
