Acting Righteous Is Not (Necessarily) Being Righteous

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. (2) With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. (3) Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? (4) Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” (5) When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.’ (Acts 5:1-5)

The full story from this excerpt is all of the early Christians who had gathered together shared all with one another, without greed or selfishness.  One man, Barnabas, sold his field and brought the full amount to the Apostles for the purpose of funding the new Christian movement (Acts 4:36-37). 

Now Ananias and Sapphira, likely seeing this gesture from Barnabas, did something similar in selling their plot of land, but instead of bringing the full amount of the proceeds of the sale to the Apostles, withheld some back, perhaps for personal needs or to pay taxes, and brought the remainder to the Apostles, but made it out as they had brought the full amount to share.  It was a manipulation to make them appear to be as Righteous as Barnabas, but instead they were condemned for their feint, as first Ananias (Acts 5:5) and then Sapphira (Acts 5:10) died as a result of their lie to make themselves appear ‘good’.

It was not that they held money back from the sale that condemned them; had Barnabas held back some money, perhaps for personal need or to pay taxes, he would have told the Apostles this so that they, and God, would know the Truth.  This would not have been a sin to do so; we do this today in the forms of our tithes and offerings.  We give what we can, based on our heart and our Faith, in obedience to the ‘test’ God provides in Malachi 3.  We know the Lord provides us a basis, 10%, to give. 

Some may not be able to give 10%; when the economy is bad, we know sometimes there is ‘more month than money’, even when we cut back on everything but necessities. We know of people who may decide to buy food instead of medicine.  The IRS, the state of Florida, and the county governments insist we pay our taxes and usually take their cut first, or at the point of purchase in sales tax. Some are heartbroken that they may cut back a little in their giving in order not to do this, but in being honest with the Lord, it’s OK.  Jesus knows the Truth.

The condemning sin was that Ananias and Sapphira lied, and came up with a false narrative to make themselves appear as being righteous when in fact they were trying to ‘scam’ the Apostles, which in reality they were trying to scam God.  Being truthful and honest would have kept them from being condemned, but instead they chose to lie and seal their fate. 

When we see our leaders and our media come up with false narratives to set an agenda, they are not only lying to us but lying to God as well; the truth will always come out – Antifa is a terrorist organization, not an ‘idea’ as the media and government portray, for example.  We have the ultimate Truth detector, the Holy Spirit, who provides us discernment and Truth.  He will provide for us the means to verify what is said.  We may sometimes say or do something ‘off-kilter’ ourselves, but the Holy Spirit will correct that error, and we need to be humble enough to acknowledge that and provide the Truth.

Read the Scriptures, pray to Jesus continually, and fellowship with other believers and allow the Holy Spirit to provide you with the Truth, the direction to be Righteous, the means to discern what is True or not!