[377 words]
Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, two Christians in the first century, got caught telling a lie (Acts 5:1-11). They lied to men and to God. You can often hide your lies from men but never from God. “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Deut. 32:23).
The apostle Peter confronted the couple separately, three hours apart, and in effect said, “You lied, didn’t you?” They couldn’t deny lying. They had blatantly fabricated a bold-faced lie. They died on the spot.
What was the last lie you told? When was that falsehood uttered – today, yesterday, a week ago? If swift and fatal punishment would have followed the most recent lie you told, as it did the day Ananias and Sapphira lied, what day would you have dropped dead?
Peter asked Ananias, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?” That is, “Why did you allow Satan to influence your heart to manufacture this lie?”
We know that Satan “is a liar and the father of lies.” He is behind every untruth told. He “has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him” (John 8:44). But we also know that when we tell a lie, the guilt is on us; we are responsible; we are held accountable; we have sinned. Don’t blame the devil; he instigates it but we implement it; he does the tempting but we do the telling. In lying, we work with Satan.
People lie to make themselves look better, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. People lie to hide disobedience, like King Saul (1 Sam. 15:13). People lie for personal gain, like Gehazi (2 Kings 5:20-27). People lie to protect themselves, like Peter (Mt. 26:69-75).
Paul says, “don’t lie”: “Put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Eph. 4:25). Paul wrote, “Do not lie to one another,” that’s the “old self;” we should live like the “new self’ (Col. 3:9, 10). Liars will have an eternal home in hell but not in heaven (Rev. 21:8).
James Cudd
Hinton church of Christ
Hinton, OK