Acts 5:3

My Notes

What Does Acts 5:3 Mean?

Peter confronts Ananias with a devastating question: but Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

Why hath Satan filled thine heart — Peter identifies the source: Satan (Satanas — the adversary). The filling (pleroo — to fill completely, to take full possession of) parallels the filling of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). The contrast is deliberate: the Spirit fills for truth and power; Satan fills for deception. The heart (kardia) that should have been filled with the Spirit was instead filled by the adversary.

To lie to the Holy Ghost — the lie is directed at the Holy Spirit. Ananias lied to the church — but Peter says the real offense was lying to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present in the community, and deception within the community is deception directed at him. The Spirit is not an impersonal force who cannot be lied to. He is a person who can be deceived — or rather, who is the target of the attempt to deceive.

And to keep back (nosphizo — to misappropriate, to embezzle, to secretly set aside for oneself) part of the price of the land — the sin was not keeping part of the money. Verse 4 clarifies: the land was Ananias's to keep or sell. The money after the sale was his to give or withhold. The sin was the deception — pretending to give everything while secretly keeping a portion. The hypocrisy, not the amount, was the offense.

The same word nosphizo is used in the LXX of Joshua 7:1 for Achan's theft from the devoted things at Jericho. The parallel is deliberate: as Achan's secret theft poisoned Israel at the beginning of the conquest, Ananias's secret deception threatened the church at the beginning of its mission.

Verse 4: thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. The equation is explicit: lying to the Holy Spirit = lying to God. The verse is one of the clearest affirmations of the Spirit's deity in the New Testament.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What does Satan 'filling' Ananias's heart — paralleling the Spirit's filling at Pentecost — reveal about the two competing influences on the human heart?
• 2.Why is the lie being directed at the Holy Spirit (not just the church) so significant — and what does it affirm about the Spirit's personhood and deity?
• 3.How does the sin of Ananias — performing generosity while secretly withholding — differ from simply choosing not to give?
• 4.Where might there be a gap between what you perform publicly and what is true privately — and why does this verse take that gap so seriously?

Devotional

Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? The question Peter asks is not about money. It is about the heart. Satan filled it. Not gradually seduced it. Filled it — the way the Holy Spirit fills believers, Satan filled Ananias. The heart became the adversary's territory. And the first thing Satan produced in that filled heart was a lie.

To lie to the Holy Ghost. The lie was not told to Peter. It was told to the Holy Spirit — the living presence of God in the community. When you deceive the church, you deceive the Spirit who inhabits the church. The Spirit is not a concept you can trick. He is a person you lie to — and the lie reaches him even when no one else detects it.

And to keep back part of the price. The sin was not keeping money. It was pretending to give everything while holding back. The generosity was performed — made visible, designed to impress — while the reality was different. The public act said: I gave it all. The private truth said: I kept some for myself. The gap between the two is the lie.

No one forced Ananias to sell the land. No one required him to give the full amount. The money was his (v.4). The sin was not insufficient generosity. It was the performance of total generosity — the act of pretending to be more devoted than you actually are. The hypocrisy was the offense. The lie to the Spirit was the crime.

Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God (v.4). The Spirit is God. Lying to the Spirit is lying to God. The deception that felt like a harmless fudge — a small gap between appearance and reality — was an offense against the divine person who sees through every performance.

Where is the gap between your performed generosity and your actual generosity? Where is the lie hiding in the space between what you show and what you keep? The Spirit is present. And the Spirit is not fooled.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture