But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thy heart that thou shouldest lie to the Holy Spirit, and put aside for thyself a part of the price of the estate?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
While it remained did it not remain to *thee*? and sold, was [it not] in thine own power? Why is it that thou hast purposed this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.
Believers were selling property to help each other, and Ananias brought part of a sale while letting it look like the whole. Peter's questions make two things clear: no one demanded the money, and Ananias lied to God, not to the church.
The first two questions remove any idea that Ananias was under pressure.
F. B. HoleThis generosity wasn't something laid on them as a divine demand. Peter said to Ananias: "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?" He was under no compulsion. He might have sold it and kept the money, without pretending anything, but he came acting a lie. Poor Sapphira told one.
So was the sharing of goods in Jerusalem ever a rule?
C. E. StuartThis settled it with authority: holding goods in common was in no way required. Anyone was free to give. Anyone was free to keep what he owned, whether land or money. Only, whatever was done had to be done honestly.
Keeping the money was lawful. So the sin lay somewhere else — in the claim attached to the gift.
Leslie M. GrantHe makes it very clear that Ananias had a perfect right to keep all the land if he chose to. Once it was sold, he had a right to keep all or part of the money. But to falsely claim to be giving all was wickedness in the eyes of God. He had lied, not merely to men, but to God.
What did the couple hope to gain by pretending?
W. W. FeredayIt seems they wanted their brothers and sisters to see them as devoted and unworldly, like Barnabas and many others. How often has human opinion ensnared men's souls!
Peter names Satan as the one who filled his heart, yet asks why he planned the deed there.
C. E. StuartNotice that Peter speaks to him as a man who claims to be a Christian. He holds him responsible for giving in to the temptation.
The record never says Ananias spoke a word. He laid the money down and let it speak for him.
W. T. P. WolstonDid that man tell a lie? We do not read, at that moment, of any words being spoken. He came and laid down his money at the feet of the apostles, for the common need of all. But God was there, and He could not be deceived… This man wanted to look devoted when he was not. But God was in the middle of His assembly. He detected the unreality, exposed it, and judged it. How solemn! Yet if there is anything truly blessed to learn, it is that God is among His people, in the heart of the assembly, and He will have reality.
Verse 3 says he lied to the Holy Spirit; verse 4 says he lied to God. Writers take the pairing as a statement about who the Spirit is.
Samuel Ridout"Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? … You have not lied to man but to God" (Acts 5:3-4). Men cannot lie to an influence, or deceive what is not a person. A divine Being had taken up His home in the Church, which He formed at Pentecost, and it was to Him that Ananias had lied.
The Holy Spirit now lives in the Christian. That is what gave this lie its weight.
William KellyA Christian's sin is sin against the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has taken up His home in the Christian. So whatever sin he does is a disrespect to the Holy Spirit and a grief to Him. So a lie now is not merely a lie… God was there, and he had acted as if God was not there.
- Free — No one demanded anything from Ananias. The land was his before the sale. The money was his after it.
- Faked — His sin was not withholding but pretending. He could have kept every coin honestly; what he could not do was buy a reputation with a false label.
- Flattered — The bait was human opinion. He wanted the name for devotion that others had earned. Peter still holds him responsible for taking the bait.
- Found out — He said nothing; the money said it for him. God was in the assembly, saw straight through him, and exposed the pretence on the spot. He will have what is real.
- Faced — Peter calls Him the Holy Spirit in one breath and God in the next. You cannot lie to an influence — only to someone who is there.