Mike Focht 6/12/2026
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God. . . Then Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
Acts 5:3-4 & 9
At the very beginning of the early church, we have one of the sternest reproofs in all the New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira have sold their possessions, kept part of the money, and then presented the rest as if it were everything that they possessed. It was a bold and devious act of hypocritical, reputation-building.
The Holy Spirit gives insight to Peter, who challenges them individually. Rather than repent, both decide to keep up their part of the lie instead of humbling themselves before God. The result is that both ultimately fall dead. We are then told twice that great fear came upon all those who heard these things. God’s stern judgment of sin brought about a healthy fear of the Lord in the lives of both the church and the outside unsaved world.
There are many lessons here for us, but the main reproof is summed up in Peter’s words of rebuke to Sapphira, How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? As followers of Christ, even though our sins are forgiven, we are never called to test God’s forgiveness. Testing God is forcing God to deal with something. It is a willful and rebellious continuing in known sin that refuses to acknowledge or repent. It says, I will press on in my sin, and God will have to forgive it.
That pridefully flippant type of attitude is what God judged in the tragic couple. We are not talking about a David or Peter who sinned grievously and then repented. We are talking about two people who willfully disobeyed God’s commands and still assumed God would intercede to help them continue building their hypocritical and false reputations as “full givers”.
Even Jesus was tempted in this way. Jesus rejected Satan’s attempt to tempt Him into testing His Father. He refused to leap off the temple and force God to have angels catch Him. Jesus’ response was, It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
If we force God to step in and deal with our sin, He will. Sin in the church may be dealt with differently than sin outside the church, but it will be dealt with nonetheless! Where is the line when God will step in? The Bible never draws it clearly! We only know it is somewhere along the path of willful disobedience. The Holy Spirit will lay down that line in your heart, and it is up to us to respond with honesty and humility when He brings our sin into the light. Both Ananias and Saphira had their chance to repent. They chose to test God instead.
Whether you decide to test the Spirit of the Lord is up to you. Any attitude in us that would take advantage of God’s grace, and sin so that grace may abound, testing the warnings of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, should be quickly confessed and sternly rebuked.
How should we feel about these things? So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.