However, we see that deceit was clearly on the minds of Ananias and Sapphira. Why? Did Ananias and Sapphira desire to look like promiment church members by this public lie? Many Christians today spend their energies in pursuit of affluence. Some go as far as to sin by lying to obtain that affluence. In the long run, the chaff burns away and the pews marked with brass plaques with their names stamped on them remain empty in the church of dry religion. Did Ananias and Sapphira have one foot in the world and the other foot in the church? I would say yes. God Almighty desires a people who are completely sold out to him. By these two acts performed by Ananias and Sapphira, it is clearly seen that these two people were not sold out to God and paid the price of totem for their deceit. In verses six and ten, we see that after this couple died, the young men quickly came in, removed the bodies, and buried the dead. When we see sin starting to die in our temple, we do not need to grieve over the death of sin in our lives. We need to rejoice that the sin is now killed, we become free in Christ, and our temple is cleaner. Like these young men, we need to take the remants of our sin outside of our temple and surroundings and bury it in order to get the remains out of our lives and to allow the sin to decay and rot back into the spiritually inorganic root it comes from. A true holy temple of God chooses life and allows Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life to enter in, cleanse, and heal and allows the Holy Spirit to dwell inside.

We see in verse eleven that the fear of God came upon the church to pursue holiness. Let us notice that this is God moving on a people he loves, not man scaring people into action. It is God's job to instill holy and reverent fear upon the lives of his children to bring them into holiness. It is not our job. We have people who mean well when they try to evangelize people by scaring them with hell. However, we see that the propagation of fear to scare people into a kingdom of love does not work anymore. Instead, we see the true New Testament model of relationship evangelism occur thorughout the Gospels. We see Jesus fellowshipping with sinners, tax collectors, politicians, the blind, the lame, etc. Jesus mentioned hell because hell was a reality. It is stated in the Scriptures that hell was not designed for humans, but for satan and the fallen angels to spend eternal torment. The kingdom of holiness and love never used hate, politics, and fear to win souls into the kingdom. Jesus showed us by example how to live, how to act, and how to obtain holiness in our lives.

Click here for part four of Tresspass / Transgression to Temple.