Acts 5:10

Acts 5:10 vividly recounts the immediate death of Sapphira, following the earlier demise of her husband, Ananias. Both faced divine judgment for their deceptive act of lying to the Holy Spirit regarding their financial offering to the early church. This powerful narrative serves as a stark illustration of God's holiness and His intolerance for hypocrisy within His community.

Context

This verse is the climactic moment of the account of Ananias and Sapphira, which begins in Acts chapter 5. In the burgeoning early Christian church, believers were selling their possessions and sharing the proceeds to ensure no one among them had need, laying the money at the apostles' feet (Acts 4:34-35). Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of land, but secretly withheld a portion of the sale price while claiming to give the entire amount. Peter confronted Ananias, revealing that he had lied not just to men, but to God Himself (Acts 5:4). Ananias immediately fell dead (Acts 5:5). Three hours later, Sapphira arrived, unaware of what had transpired, and repeated the same lie. Her subsequent death, as described in this verse, solidified the profound impact of these events, instilling a great fear upon all who heard about it and upon the entire church.

Key Themes

• Divine Judgment and Holiness: The swift and severe judgment meted out to Ananias and Sapphira powerfully demonstrates God's absolute holiness and His intolerance for deceit and hypocrisy, especially within the sacred context of His church. It underscores the truth that the Holy Spirit is God, and lying to the Spirit is an affront to God Himself.
• Integrity and Truthfulness: This incident highlights the critical importance of complete honesty and transparency before God and the community. The sin was not in withholding money (they were free to keep it), but in the pretense of full devotion and the deliberate lie to gain false spiritual credit.
• Purity of the Church: God's immediate action ensured that the early church understood the seriousness of their covenant with Him and with one another. It was a foundational moment establishing the need for spiritual purity and integrity within the nascent Christian community.

Linguistic Insights

The King James Version's phrase "yielded up the ghost" is an older idiom meaning "died" or "breathed her last." In the original Greek, the word is exepsyxen (ἐξέψυξεν), literally meaning "she breathed out" or "expired." The term "straightway" (Greek: parachrēma, παραχρῆμα) emphasizes the instantaneous nature of her death, mirroring the immediate consequence faced by her husband.

Practical Application

While such immediate physical judgment is not the typical experience for believers today, the principles embedded in Acts 5:10 remain eternally relevant. This passage serves as a potent reminder of:

• The profound seriousness of sin, particularly hypocrisy and deceit, in the eyes of a holy God.
• The vital importance of spiritual integrity and authenticity in our faith and our interactions with others. God desires truth in our innermost being (Psalm 51:6).
• The reality of the Holy Spirit as fully God, omniscient and not to be trifled with.
• The call for purity and genuine commitment within the church, reflecting God's own holy character. This account urges believers to live with sincere hearts before God and one another, remembering that God looks beyond outward appearances to the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).