Ananias and Sapphira

Or the lie may be told from a love of money, or in order to be well-thought of.  In the very early days of the Church all the Christians in Jerusalem sold any property they had and put all their money into a common fund, so that everyone shared and shared alike.  Now a man called Ananias and his wife Sapphira had some land which they did not really want to sell at all, but it was difficult for them not to when all the rest were selling theirs.  They wanted to keep it themselves, and yet at the same time they wanted to be well-thought of for their generosity.  So they decided that they would sell it, keep back some of the money secretly for themselves, and hand over the rest to the Apostles as if it were the whole sum. 

It was Ananias who actually brought the money, but when Peter saw through the deception and accused him of having lied to God, Ananias collapsed and died on the spot.  About three hours later his wife, Sapphira, came in, and so Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you and your husband sold the land for such and such a price”.  And Sapphira said, “Yes, that was the price”.  Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?  Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out” (NRSV, Acts 5:8-9).  And Sapphira collapsed and died there and then as her husband had done.

They lied, not because they were afraid of getting into trouble, but so that other people should have a good opinion of them and think them better than they really were.  So today people tell lies for the same reason by exaggerating or pretending to have done things that they have not done at all.  It is all very silly but it makes people careless of the truth and more likely to lie in other ways.