Acts 5:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

O foolish and senseless man! For there is no more fitting name for the impious than foolish: "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Ps 13:1). He did not speak as you suppose. If the insult against the Spirit rose up to God as the One Who sent Him, it would have been necessary to say: you have not lied to the Spirit, but to God.

He skillfully checked them at once, lest, growing with the wheat, they choke it. And when they did not change for the better, which was the whole grief of Simon, he condemned them to death. He understood by the Spirit and answered that they would not change for the better. They prayed for forgiveness out of shame, but their heart sang out of tune with their lips. As the divine psalmist said concerning Israel: "They loved Him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to Him, for their heart was not right with Him." And they were not faithful in His covenant. Those skilled in healing usually act in the same way. If someone is wholly possessed by an incurable suffering, they cut off a finger from the hand or foot before the corruption spreads to the other members. So also the wondrous Moses, when he saw from the beginning that what belonged to the Law was being neglected, though he was weak, commanded that the man who sinfully gathered sticks on the Sabbath be stoned. Thus God commanded it to be written: transgression is condemned in both great and small matters. As the Lord said: "If someone keeps the whole Law but sins in one point, he is guilty of all." He does not destroy all his virtue. That is fitting for those who think unjustly and poorly about God's righteous judgment. Rather, it seems that he is guilty of all who takes something away from virtue.

The spirit of hypocrisy, outward righteousness, and the desire to display oneself before men, so characteristic of Pharisaic righteousness, could have entered and taken root in the Christian community. Until then its members had been marked by sincerity of piety, openness of conscience before every believer, and unfeigned, selfless love for their neighbors. It is now understandable why the deed of Ananias and Sapphira was judged and punished so severely. In them, the spirit that had mastered them was chastised and decisively driven out of the Apostolic Church. In his accusatory speech to Ananias (vv. 3-4), the Apostle Peter ascribes the birth of the hypocritical intention in his heart to Satan. Yet since man preserves freedom of moral self-determination despite Satan's external actions upon his heart, the apostle blames Ananias himself. He had allowed Satan to enter his heart with his tempting actions. At the same time, the apostle teaches that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church of Christ. Therefore a lie before the Church is also a lie before the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. Consequently, the lie of Ananias and Sapphira is a great and unforgivable sin.

He should not have appeared to be the same kind of guardian of the poor, standing at the same height of brotherly self-denying love as those who sacrificed everything they had. "Do you see how he is accused because, after making his money sacred, he then took it? Could you not, he says, after selling the property, use the money as your own? Did anyone prevent you? Why do you seize it after promising to give it? Why, he says, have you done this? Did you wish to keep it for yourself? You ought to have kept it at first and not made the promise" (Chrysostom). "You have not lied to men, but to God": a lie before the Holy Spirit is a lie before God. This expression indicates the divine being of the Spirit and His personhood. It does not merely mean that God is a spiritual being. Such a judgment on Ananias' deed showed him the whole depth of his fall and the grievous sinfulness of his action. In his moral fall, Ananias had probably not attached such significance to it.

Therefore he was not filled with godly sorrow leading to salvation, but with crushing fear and horror. This developed and acted strikingly, in proportion to the profound secrecy with which the deceit had been committed and to the complete unexpectedness of its discovery. At the same time, the whole contrast between his own person and the common disposition became clear. He had tried so carefully, and even rather self-denyingly, to imitate that disposition. According to the explanation of blessed Theophylact, here there were "three miracles in one and the same event. One was that he, Peter, knew what had been done secretly. Another was that he determined the mental disposition of Ananias. The third was that Ananias was deprived of life by a command alone."

If the Lord will not hold guiltless the one who takes His name in vain, idly, lightly, and without need, what should that man expect who takes an oath before God with evil intent? He would use the name of God sacrilegiously, to cover the impurity of his unfaithfulness with God's holiness. "You shall destroy all who speak falsehood" (Ps 5:7). But before all others, O Lord, will You not destroy those who speak falsehood before Your name and before Your face? Such were Ananias and Sapphira, who lied not to men, but to You, God. When the Apostle Peter rebuked Ananias with these very words, "You have not lied to men, but to God," Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the spirit. Later Sapphira, after a similar rebuke, immediately fell down at his feet and gave up the spirit (Acts 5:4, 5, 10). This example, and many examples outside sacred history, show that a lie before the name of God and before the face of God is a perjured lie. It seems to bring heavenly Justice to impatience and draws down dread and sudden blows of judgment.

They care chiefly that others should admire the spectacle of their piety, and glorify not the heavenly Father, but them alone. They imitate Ananias and Sapphira. There are people who, either from false shame or from lack of the fear of God, dare to practice hypocrisy even at confession. They either completely conceal and deny their sins, or lightly excuse them and lessen their gravity. Yet Christ Himself stands invisibly before them in those sacred moments and receives their confession. By concealing and excusing their sins, they increase their guilt before God. They imitate Ananias and Sapphira. There are lovers of philanthropy who spend enormous sums on building and adorning churches. They establish and support schools, hospitals, and almshouses. They do not spare donations for public needs, especially in extreme circumstances, such as famine, war, or epidemic disease. Yet, sadly, they do all this not from zeal for the glory of God, nor from Christian compassion for their neighbors. They act from self-interested calculations, so that everyone will talk about them. They hope to receive a reward, such as a high rank, an order, or something similar. Sometimes they do it to divert eyes from their impure deeds, as with benefactors who are Skoptsy. They imitate Ananias and Sapphira. There are people hypocritical in dealing with their neighbor. In words and outward signs they show him devotion, love, and respect. In their soul they either have none of these dispositions toward him, or they harbor only ill will. Secretly they try to harm him, or to gain some advantage at his expense. In order to ingratiate themselves with a powerful or wealthy man, they flatter him in the most shameless way. They ascribe to him good qualities he does not possess. They praise his deeds and undertakings, though these are unworthy of praise. They call evil deeds good, or excuse them. They ignore that such shameless flattery toward a neighbor can make him proud and unable to see and correct his faults. Such hypocrites imitate Ananias and Sapphira. There are people who falsely declare themselves poor and possessing nothing. By this declaration they seek to free themselves from every obligation toward creditors, sellers, workers, and others. They imitate Ananias and Sapphira, who pretended that they had no property. In general, are there few such imitators among us? Are there few Ananiases and Sapphiras among us? Are there few people with that disposition of soul and conduct which was exposed and punished in Ananias and Sapphira? And what fearful power lies in the words of the apostolic rebuke! Exposing the sin of Ananias, the Apostle Peter ascribes a share in this sin to Satan: "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" This is a fearful disclosure. Yet the truth to which it points is, sadly, beyond all dispute. According to the word of the Savior, Satan, or the devil, is a murderer from the beginning. As he himself is a liar, so he is the father or author of lies in others (Jn 8:44). Is it any wonder that Ananias acted at the prompting of the same evil being whom the Savior called the father of the hypocritical Pharisees? This same being put into the heart of one of the Savior's closest disciples the thought of betraying Him. He helped him conceal this criminal thought under the appearance of hypocritical devotion to the Savior. To the father of lies and of all deceit, the pure society of the apostolic Church was hateful. According to the testimony of the Acts of the Apostles, there was one heart and one soul there. The purest brotherly love and unfeigned piety reigned there. At any cost Satan wanted to plant tares in God's field, which had been sown with pure wheat. Into a society animated by the pure spirit of love, he wished to introduce the spirit of self-interest. Where sincerity, simplicity of heart, and love of truth had settled in mutual relations, he wished to implant a spirit of double-mindedness and deceit. He wished to defile piety itself with Pharisaic hypocrisy, that is, to damage Christian life at its very root. In Ananias, Satan succeeded in finding an obedient instrument for his designs hostile to Christianity. Ananias did not stand firm against the satanic temptation. By double-mindedness and hypocrisy he sought to gain the reputation of a selfless and unpossessive man. He wished to seem ready for every struggle of self-denial out of love for God and neighbor. Ananias may not have noticed whose nets had caught him, or with whom he had entered into a ruinous alliance. Satan generally loves to act upon people so that they do not notice him. He is even pleased when some deny his very existence. The less noticeable the enemy is, and the less his nearness is suspected, the more dangerous he is. Then he more easily carries out his designs. Is it any wonder that Ananias too was the careless victim of the secret schemes of an enemy he did not notice? One rebuking word from the divinely enlightened Apostle could have opened Ananias's eyes. It could have shown him the invisible hand that was drawing him into the abyss of perdition. We do not know whether Ananias managed to make use of this rebuke and repent. At least there is in it a saving lesson for us all, of which we can make use. If it is now no secret to us that Satan is admitted into our heart through double-mindedness and hypocrisy, what a strong motive we have to flee double-mindedness and hypocrisy! How necessary it is for us to be sober and watchful, lest we admit the devil into our heart. He "walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Can it be pleasant for anyone to be Satan's plaything, to be in alliance with him, and to act at his prompting? Yet to the same degree that the sin punished in Ananias and Sapphira is pleasing to Satan, it is offensive to God the Holy Spirit. Whoever is double-minded and hypocritical appears as a liar before the Holy Spirit. So too did the one to whom these words were spoken: "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" The Pharisaic desire for human glory was so strong in Ananias that it stifled the voice of higher motives within him. These motives ought to have guided his actions. Instead, it made him deal crookedly in declaring the price of the estate he had sold. The thought of God's omniscience did not restrain him from this lie. Nor did fear of God's omnipresence restrain him. He may have reasoned thus: let my secret impure thoughts be known to God, provided I seem virtuous in the eyes of men. It did not even occur to the unhappy hypocrite that the very people before whom he had to account for his actions might expose his hypocrisy. They were not ordinary mortals, but Spirit-bearing apostles, participants in the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. Among us Christians, perhaps there will be no people with apostolic knowledge who would expose hypocrites as Ananias was exposed. Yet we must be restrained from hypocrisy not by fear of open human exposure, but by fear of God's omnipresence and omniscience. We must remember our fearful accountability before the Holy Spirit, who "searches all things, even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:10). Suppose we succeed in hiding base thoughts and feelings from people under a hypocritical exterior. We shall not hide from the all-knowing Spirit of God. Fear of His omniscience must restrain us from every lie. At times it may be advantageous for us to practice hypocrisy before men, and it may please them. Yet by betraying truth to please men, and through partiality toward their opinion, we risk angering the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of truth and loves only truth. He hates every lie and every deceit. Ananias, who offended the Holy Spirit by double-mindedness and hypocrisy, did not remain unpunished. The punishment he underwent is undoubtedly extraordinary. In ordinary life one does not see examples of such punishment for double-mindedness and hypocrisy. Yet this is not because present-day hypocrites are less guilty than Ananias. It is solely because of God's mercy, which awaits their correction and repentance. And woe to them if they do not make use of this mercy! The time of recompense will come, when "the Lord will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and disclose the counsels of the hearts" (1 Cor 4:5). Then for every idle word, and still more for a hypocritical word and deed, people will fall under the strictest accountability before God. Therefore let each person fence himself with fear of God's judgment. Let him keep himself, in word and deed, from hypocrisy and double-mindedness. At least let fear restrain us from the sin from which other, stronger motives are powerless to restrain us.