Acts 5:1-11 | HypocrisySample

What does God do? He judges sin. That includes lies and hypocrisy.

Sin matters. It has consequences. As uncomfortable as a story like Acts 5 might make us, it shows that God is serious about sin. Here he allows the early believers (as well as those who saw them) a taste of judgment, just like he has been giving them tastes of his kingdom through displays of his power like miraculous acts of healing.

Acts 5 is next level. It’s like Luke is telling us that all this stuff about following Jesus and renouncing sin – this is real. The story of Acts is about God manifesting his kingdom in and through the community of believers. God’s kingdom is about restoring that which is broken and setting wrongs to right. God’s kingdom is being extended through the community of Christ followers. That includes tremendous acts of mercy and offers of grace. But it also includes judgment on sin. Acts of judgment like this are highly unusual in the Bible (despite popular belief to the contrary), especially when compared to miracles, but the kingdom of God brings both. You can’t have the kingdom without having it both ways.

An idea too present today is that sin doesn’t matter. That it can be held lightly. God knows differently. Sin kills. Literally. It matters, and God takes it seriously. Ananias and Sapphira experienced that directly. The church witnessed it as an advanced sign of the future judgment on all sin. Thanks be to God that episodes like this are rare. But they are a warning.

Every church is filled with sin. This includes lies and hypocrisy. Every church community has people who don’t believe what’s professed, people who are just going through the motions, playing the game, or living for their own agenda. People who are unsanctified, backslide, filled with Satan, or are apostate. Every church has sin. Because every person has sin. The question is not whether it’s there. It’s what to do about it.

A healthy church is not a church that’s absent of these things. It’s a church that deals with them honestly. That calls it out. Repents. Wakes up. Re-devotes. And buries their own when they fall prey to it.

Where’s that sin stirring around in you? How do you think believers should deal with other believers caught in it? Read some passages today that speak into it.