Our next installment of Difficult Bible Stories comes from the New Testament.
What does it mean to be bamboozled? What does “conjure” and “invent” mean when connected with the word “story”? What is a cheat or a fabricator?
There are some famous liars in history such as Richard Nixon regarding the Watergate tapes. James Frey, in his book A Million Little Pieces, purportedly told an autobiographical tale of his life as a drug addict, later to be revealed as fiction. Bill Clinton lied regarding Monika Lewinsky. Marion Jones denied using performance enhancing drugs in the Olympics and ended up in prison for lying to authorities. Rosie Ruiz won the Boston Marathon by entering the race in the final half-mile.
How does our culture feel about liars? How do you feel about liars? The responses we see in history are pretty consistent. Liars are reviled, repelled and repugnant. Liars are often considered wicked people. Some are driven by competition and jealousy. Others are driven by performance and emotional problems. Still others may take another man’s name to lie to an eager public for fame or popularity.
Whatever the reason, lies break trust. They twist truth. To know the truth and to trust one another is one of the core human desires in the world.
Some liars have been hung. Some have lost everything. Some liars seem to get along just fine until—well, just be sure to know that “your sins will find you out.”
What does God think of liars? I think we forget, or perhaps have never learned, that sometimes God demonstrates his power toward wickedness in decidedly deadly ways. God hates sin. He hates it precisely because he is holiness—all purity, all light, all truth.
We confuse the fact that God is a loving God with the idea that God is an always-pleasant God. We like to forget that he is our divine parent. And just as an earthly parent has to carry out punishment on their earthly children to keep them from trouble so does God.
The reality of God’s love is that that love cannot abide deceitful or pagan practices—in this sense his love is the purist kind of love. God is very clear about what he expects—100% commitment to him and his ways. When we follow his ways, by means of salvation through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit—which enables us to live as God expects—we can do all things through him who gives us strength (Philippians 4:13). The fact that his grace follows us around as well, just waiting to forgive us the moment we ask this of him, also encourages us to live a holy life. Quickly confess your sins my friends—quickly confess and mean it. God never gets tired of forgiving us.
We will explore two examples of responses to the Holy Spirit’s direction and two responses of the Holy Spirit to individuals and the choices they make in matters of truth.
The writer of Acts, named Luke, occasionally gives us summary paragraphs, tying the events of the new believers together while launching us into new aspects of discovery. Read how he describes the evolving church community.
Read Acts 4:32-35.
This is, without a doubt, the most fascinating picture of the new church empowered by the Holy Spirit. For centuries people have longed for, looked for and tried to create this kind of community. A young John Wesley traveled across the mighty Atlantic Ocean from England to the new colonies of America seeking this kind of “New Testament Church.” Without a doubt, this model of the church is a remarkable and confrontational image for many established churches. That we could be this sharing and open at all times! Around the world there are churches that demonstrate this kind of living and there are many that do not. But this model rests before us as a constant reminder of who we can be and who we should be in God.
The people of the New Testament church lived in beautiful obedience and response to the fresh leadership of the Holy Spirit. They sensed that God wanted them to take care of the poor and the needy, so their sense of self-possession was replaced with possession by the Holy Spirit. This set all their selfish agendas aside in a completely voluntary way. The apostles did not demand that people give in this way. It was just a natural outpouring of Holy Spirit transformed lives. And Luke states plainly, “There were no needy persons among them.” Remarkable!
Luke narrows his focus and takes us to a very specific example in the next few verses—Acts 4:36-37. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet. Here we see a marvelous example of submission of self to the needs of the community as prompted by the Holy Spirit. What an incredibly humble man this was! And he was given a new name “Son of Encouragement.” Ah, that we could be named such today!
Luke also narrows the focus on a married couple named Ananias and Sapphira. This can be a distressing passage, unless we understand that God is clear about what he requires and enables us to respond appropriately. These two individuals set out to deceive the Holy Spirit and the Church. Please make a note: God cannot be mocked or deceived. If we set our hearts against him, or seek to keep something from him, there will be consequences. And some of those consequences lead to death. Read carefully how Luke describes the Holy Spirit’s response to deceit.
Read Acts 5:1-11.
Now remember God is not a capricious God, just waiting around a corner to club you over the head for no reason. If we submit ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit, we can be like Barnabas. If we deny God and attempt to deceive him, we can be like Ananias and Sapphira.
It is one thing to decide to rebel against God by yourself. It’s quite another to work in collusion, to make a plan with another person against God. On a ship this would be called mutiny. In politics this would be called insurrection. Whatever name you give it, it is flat out rebellion. This colluding couple mocked the grace of God by lying!
The apostles, grieved by the knowledge they received from the Holy Spirit on this matter, spoke out boldly about the Power of God’s holiness. There is no question to how God would respond to this cheating and lying. Be careful to note that Peter did not ask God to strike Ananias and Sapphira, he simply declared what God was about to do. When God chooses to act, he does so decisively and thoroughly. And then the gravediggers came in to do their job. With shovels in hand, they took out two dead bodies to bury.
God knows our hearts better than we even know them ourselves. We can sometimes talk ourselves into some pretty tricky corners. We can justify so many things that are wrong—excuse me, we can lie about so many things that are wrong to get our own way, to cover up the truth, to disregard the trust people have placed in us. So, when God renders judgment, he knows our hearts are being deceitful. Ananias and Sapphira were not victims of a capricious god. They were victims of their own sin.
God hates sin. He hates it precisely because he is holy and knows what sin does to us. It makes us unholy and keeps us separated from him. God acted decisively in Jesus Christ to render sin powerless in us. But, if we defy God, rebel against his great love, there is but one alternative.
The whole community was struck with the incredible reality of this—as we should be today. God really is Almighty. In his hands are the powers of death and life, the power of holiness and the power of vengeance. It is right that we have great and overwhelming joy in the presence of God. And it is right that we tremble in the presence of his holiness. Both are necessary and important aspects of our relationship with God. Both are what keep us from great trouble.
Clearly God does not always immediately strike down anyone who lies and tries to cheat him. But sometimes he does. And sometimes he permits them to carry their consequences over a lifetime of unrepentance. But at all times and at all places God’s grace can redeem that sin and restore people to his loving and holy presence—as long as they humbly bow at his feet, as did Barnabas, in true humility and obedience.
Think with me about a small spade. This is what we might call a little white lie. It’s really only big enough to dig a hole that will cause us to twist or break our ankle. The pain of that twist or that break is pretty intense. It makes us stop and consider where and how we are walking.
Now think with me about a shovel. This shovel we could call a life of lying to others. It’s the kind of shovel that is used to dig a hole deep enough for us to fall into and lose connection with our spouses, our children, our church friends and work associates. Once this hole is dug deep enough no one wants to have anything to do with us anymore.
But there’s one more tool that is even more devastating. It’s a backhoe of enormous size. It can dig a hole deep enough to swallow us for eternity. It’s the backhoe of lying to God. When that great claw rasps through the topsoil, what is revealed below is a black hole of eternal damnation.
I don’t ever want to use any of these tools. That’s why I will do my best to yield my spade and my shovel to God any time I have picked them up. I want to live in absolute transparency with the God who loves me and gave himself for me. I want to live in the light of the resurrection, unafraid of being buried by my sin. I want to pray with the Psalmist as he prayed in Psalm 139.
Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Challenge: Read how the New Testament Church continued to grow after this judgment of God in Acts 5:12-16. Why did some people avoid the Church and others joined this buoyant community of believers? Are you trying to hide anything from God today?
Amen
© M.R.Hyde 2023
This is an excerpt from Who is the Holy Spirit? A Devotional Journey Through the Book of Acts.
