The Deadliest Sin in the Church (Acts 5:1-11) | 3/6/22
Acts 5:1-11 | 3/6/22 | Will DuVal
I heard a story about a pastor who was planning to preach on LYING the following Sunday, so he asked his congregation to read Colossians ch5 that week in preparation. The next Sunday, he stepped into the pulpit and asked for a show of hands: “So, how many of you read Colossians 5?” Most folks raised their hands. The pastor hung his head and said, “Colossians only has 4 chapters.”
Now, I won’t ask how many of YOU read Acts ch5 for this morning – I don’t want to encourage some of YOU to lie in church – but I DO hope you’ve ALL been reading along with us during the week to prepare for our study of Acts together each Sunday, and we WILL be in ch5 today and we’re talkingabout lying, as a matter of fact. Well, kind of…
I’ve titled this message “The Deadliest Sin in the Church”. And let me clarify two things up front about that title before we dive in:
First, the words “DEADLIEST SIN”. You may have one of two reactions, hearing them. On the one hand, some of you raised in the Catholic church might think, “Wait a minute; don’t you mean “deadliest SINS”? I thought there were SEVEN of them?” And I would simply refer you to the Bible, where you’ll find that Catholicism’s list of seven is quite arbitrary. Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth are of course all sins. But there’s no reason, biblically, to consider them any different from any OTHER sins.
But on the other hand, others of you were raised to believe that all sins are EQUAL. And that’s simply unbiblical as well. While it’s true that ALL sin leads to death (Rom 6:23), that even one sin disqualifies you from Heaven on your own merit (Jam 2:10), that doesn’t mean that all sins are equally egregious in God’s eyes, or equally ruinous to our lives. God DOES clearly distinguish between sins in His word.
My discipleship group is reading through Leviticus and Numbers right now, where God outlines the appropriate sacrifices to be offered for “unintentional sins” (Lev 4:2), but then He declares, “But the person who [sins] with a high hand (i.e., intentionally, knowingly)… shall be cut off from among his people.” There is no sacrifice for THOSE sins. And even for the unintentional sins, God assigns different sacrifices based not only on the severity of the sin, but also on who’s doing the sinning. A priest has to bring a bull for his sin offering, while a lay person can offer a goat or sheep.
And this IN-equality of sins is even CLEARER in the NT. Jesus said that Judas was guilty of a “greater sin” than Pilate (John 19:10-11). Jesus drew distinctions between a “speck” and a “plank” in one’s eye (Matt. 7:3). He said that it would be WORSE for some sinners on Judgment Day than for others (Matt 11:21-22). (Marty Foord, “Are All Sins Equal”, https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/are-all-sins-equal/)
1 John 5:16 exhorts us to pray for one another’s sin, but warns “There is a sin – one specific sin – that leads to death.” John says, “Don’t even bother PRAYING about THAT sin; if someone commits THAT sin, he’s already a goner.”
And that’s a good segue way to my SECOND disclaimer, about the words “IN THE CHURCH”, in my title. I could NOT just call this sermon “The Deadliest Sin”. Because the DEADLIEST sin of ALL, the sin that John just alluded to that leads to death, is the sin of REJECTING Christ. Jesus labels it “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” (Mark 3:22-30) – when the Holy Spirit convicts a person of their sin and their need for a Savior, even allows them to behold JESUS and his offer of salvation, if they would only repent and believe, and yet that person HARDENS their heart instead, and REJECTS Christ – such a blasphemer of the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is “guilty of an ETERNAL sin, and NEVER has forgiveness” (Mk 3:29).
THAT is the deadliest sin of all, friends, the sin that leads to ETERNAL death and Hell, and I implore you this morning: if you’re here and you have NEVER confessed your sinfulness and REPENTED – TURNED from your sin – and entrusted your life to JESUS, as your Lord and your Savior, don’t wait a moment longer; don’t harden your heart this morning. Cry out to JESUS for forgiveness and you will be SAVED!
But now we turn our attention to Acts 5, and the deadliest sin, specifically, in the church. Let me remind you of the CONTEXThere:
In ch1, Jesus commissioned his followers to be his gospel “witnesses” in all the earth.
In ch2, the Holy Spirit descended on the church, empowering them for the job.
In ch3, they followed in Jesus’ footsteps by bringing others both physical AND spiritual healing, like Jesus had. And all the while, this amazing movement of God’s Spirit is gaining momentum, and the church is growing. God is ADDING to their number daily; in ch5, for the first time, God is about to SUBTRACT.
But first, in ch4, the Jewish religious leaders try to shut this whole gospel thing down; they arrest the apostles, and threaten them not to speak about Jesus again. But it only served to EMBOLDEN the church, such that by the END of chapter 4, we hear this beautiful description of the church: “The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laidit at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. 36 Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, 37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
And God was glorified. But Satan was enraged. And having FAILED to thwart the church by provoking those OUTSIDE it – the priests and Sadducees – now, in ch5, Satan will turn his attention and his attacks on those INSIDE the church.
Would you stand with me… Acts 5:1-11:
“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. 6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
7 After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, “Tell me whether you[a] sold the land for so much.” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” 9 But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole church and upon allwho heard of these things.” This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
So what IS the “deadliest sin in the church”? Is it GREED? The fact that others were selling all their stuff and generously giving ALL the proceeds to those in need in the church, while Ananias and Sapphira selfishly KEPT some of the profit from their property sale for themselves? Once a year or so, I’ll try and work in a sermon on giving, the importance of supporting the ministry of the church financially. Is this morning GIVING Sunday? Acts 5 certainly appears to have lots of potential: “Give generously to the church, OR ELSE! You don’t wanna end up like Ananias and Sapphira, do you? Let’s see those checkbooks!”
But Peter makes it clear in v4 that greed is NOT the root issue here. He says, “While [the land] remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?”. He says, “No one FORCED you to sell it. And once you sold it, no one forced you to donate the proceeds.” Re-read the end of ch4: the apostles never instructed anyone to sell their stuff and share the funds; people just DID it. Voluntarily. And not EVERYONE did it; ch2 said they were meeting regularly in one another’s homes; clearly SOME folks held onto their property. So Ananias and Sapphira were under no compulsion to give. That’s not their sin.
So is it LYING? That’s how PETER labels their sin, in v4: “you’ve LIED”. Now we’re getting closer to the point. But I think we need to dig even deeper and ask: WHY did Ananias and Sapphira lie? Peter himself asks them, in v4: “Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart”, and lied?
And when we read the story in context, on the heels of ch4, the answer becomes obvious, doesn’t it? They LIED, because of their even deeper sin of HYPOCRISY.
Hypocrisy: The Greek word – hypokrites – originated in the theater world, where it referred to the MASK an actor would wear to hide his real face while on stage; it’s a FACADE – “a superficial appearance or illusion”. In our dictionary today, hypocrisy is defined as the “pretense of having a virtuous character that one does not really possess” (dictionary.com).
Ananias and Sapphira saw the examples of others in their community – brothers like BARNABAS, who got a special NICKNAMEfor being so generous, and bringing so much “encouragement” to the rest of the church… Barnabas, who got a special SHOUT OUT in God’s holy, eternal WORD; his generosity is now memorialized FOREVER, on the pages of Scripture – and Ananias and Sapphira thought, “WE want a nickname! WE want to be well-thought-of and LIKED by the church. WE want to be remembered; we want OUR names written in the pages of Scripture!” Be careful what you WISH for, right? I doubt THIS is what they had in mind.
Why is hypocrisy the “deadliest sin” in the church? Well, for one thing, it’s the only sin that God Himself ever personally KILLEDsomeone in the church for, immediately, right there on the spot. In the OT, God struck down Lot’s wife (for idolatry), Nadab and Abihu (for insolence), Uzzah (for irreverence). Later in the book of Acts, God will do the same to King Herod Agrippa in ch12. But Ananias and Sapphira are the only instance in the Bible where God punishes sin in the CHURCH this severely and this swiftly. In fact, there’s only one other occasion in the NT where God disciplines the church with death; albeit not immediate death on the spot. It’s 1 Corinthians ch11, the passage just AFTER the verses we read every Sunday before receiving communion together – “the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread…” – just AFTER that, the apostle Paul warns: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have DIED.[h] 31 But if we judged[i] ourselves truly, we would not be judged.”
What does it mean to take the Lord’s Supper in “an unworthy manner… without discerning the body?” It means coming to the table PRESUMPTUOUSLY. “Unwarrantedly or impertinently bold”. Like you BELONG there. Like you DESERVE Christ’s sacrifice. Instead of JUDGING yourself, discerning your sinfulness, and your utter unworthiness of what Jesus endured for you. And in thatsense, the Corinthian church was really guilty of the sin of hypocrisy as well; they were sweeping their sin under the rug, and coming to the communion table not with hearts full of contrition, but rather, full of PREtention.
But I make the claim that hypocrisy is the “deadliest sin in the church” not just because it’s the only one, biblically, that God delivers an instant death sentence for; hypocrisy is ALSO the single greatest threat to the Church’s CALLING. To us BEING the Church that Jesus created us to be. Christ calls His Church to do 3 things: Love HIM, Love ONE ANOTHER, and Love OTHERS, outside the Church. That’s it. Pretty simple.
God designed US – this collective “Body of Christ” that you and I are so privileged to be a part of – for 3 purposes: to love HIM (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength”), to love ONE ANOTHER (“By this all people will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for one another.””), and to love those OUTSIDE the Church as well, with the love of Christ (Jesus goes so far as to command us to “Love (even) your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”).
And this is all reflected in our OWN church’s mission statement: “West Hills is a Gospel-centered church who will glorify God BY – 3 things – living in authentic Christian community with one another, growing in spiritual maturity as disciples of Jesus (growing in our love for HIM), and serving the world missionally with the love of Christ.”
But HYPOCRISY, more than any other sin, POISONS our effectiveness at all 3 of those worthy, godly pursuits. And I want to spend the rest of our time showing you HOW.
First – #1 – Hypocrisy kills our COMMUNITY, our love for ONE ANOTHER. (vv1-2)
We see this in vv1&2, and in the stark contrast here between Ananias and Sapphira, and the loving example of those like Barnabas, from ch4. Consider again the stunning picture of COMMUNITY at the end of ch4: the church was “of one heart and soul”, so much so that no one even claimed their right of personal property; instead, they said, “what’s mine is yours.” Jesus said, “Greater LOVE has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Barnabas laid down his life, his live-LIHOOD, for the Church. And remember, there were over 8,000 men alone – probably more than 20,000 people total! – in the Church already. This was the original “MEGA-church”! So there’s no WAY Barnabas even knew everyone. He’s laying down his livelihood for total STRANGERS. THAT’s love! That’s radical, brotherly love.
And it’s infectious. Others see it, and they WANT it. I believe that’s probably what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. I doubt they intended to lie from the very start. I bet they saw the example of others like Barnabas and thought, “WOW! What generosity – that is remarkable… INSPIRING! I want to be that generous!” And so they rush out in v1 and sell their field. And it wasn’t until they had the money IN HAND that Ananias thought, “Ya know, Honey… No one would EVER KNOW, if we held back just a PART of the profit for ourselves.”
To which Sapphira replied, “I guess that’s true… but the whole POINT was to be radically generous, ya know? Barnabas didn’t donate part of his proceeds; he gave it ALL. I want folks to see us like THAT.”
To which Ananias responded, “Yeah… But what if we TOLD them it was the full amount… we can just tell them we were so excitedto give that we accepted a lower offer, the first offer we got, cuz we just couldn’t wait to make our contribution.”
And Sapphira thought, “I don’t know, Babe… that feels kinda slimy…”
But Ananias said, “Come on… we DESERVE to keep at least SOME of it. Hey, if we hang on to a few denarii, we could buy you that fancy new pair of stiletto sandals I know you’ve been eyeing at the market.”
And Sapphira thought, “Ooh, I do love those shoes…”
So they put their WANTS over the community’s NEEDS. But remember: it wasn’t just their GREED that hurt the community, it was their HYPOCRISY. And while it may be more SUBTLE, hypocrisy KILLS community. In at least 3 ways; 3 sub-points here (and with each, I’ll give you an example from the teachings of Jesus, and then one possible modern-day application as well):
First, hypocrisy discourages others. Jesus taught, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others… When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do… that they may be praised by others.” That has the practical effect of discouraging OTHERS from giving. The Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, were his biggest opponents, and his biggest BEEF with them was their HYPOCRISY. They LOVED to make a big SHOW of their good deeds. But imagine you’re a poor farmer or artisan in the Temple courtyard, about to drop off your tithe, 10% of your modest earnings, when along comes a group of Pharisees, the wealthiest 1%ers of their day, sounding the trumpets to make sure that everyone around sees just how much money THEIR 10% amounts to. How does that make you feel, bringing YOUR tiny offering? Pretty SMALL, huh. Like, “Man, if they’re able to give THAT much, what difference are MY few mites gonna make anyway?”
I would suggest to you that we STILL see that kind of thing happen all the time in the church. I’ve listened to sermons where I walked away thinking, “Well, sounds like THAT pastor is God’s golden child; I guess that makes ME His black sheep. Because I don’t think I could EVER be as righteous as he sounds to be.” It’s discouraging. REAL holiness, like Barnabas’, is inspiring, EN-couraging; FAKE righteousness, like the Pharisees’, is DIS-couraging. “I’ll never measure up, so why even try.”
Second, hypocrisy kills community by DISMISSING others. It discourages, and even worse, it dismisses. It overlooks others altogether. Hypocrisy PRETENDS to be about others, when it’s really just about one’s SELF, looking good in the eyes of others.
Jesus offers us a perfect example in Matthew 15. He’s confronted by a group of, you guessed it, Pharisees who want to know why his disciples “break the tradition of the elders” by not ritually washing their hands. And Jesus replies, “You wanna talk about respecting your ELDERS?! Let’s talk about your CORBAN laws, these loopholes you’ve written into your interpretation of the OT, whereby you designate the funds you SHOULD have spent taking care of your poor, aging parents to “GOD” instead, and conveniently wrap it into your Temple tithe; which oh by the way, goes to WHOM? Who
gets PAID out of the Temple funds? Oh, that’s right: YOU do. Don’t pretend to care about your “elders”; you don’t care about them AT ALL. You only care about YOURSELVES. Your faux “righteousness” is totally self-serving.
Or take an example from today. I shared in a previous sermon about the dean of my divinity school, who used his commencement address as an opportunity to tell us the story of when he was asked for some change by a homeless man on the corner of campus on HIS OWN first day of school, and being so ashamed that he wasn’t able to “help” that he resolved NEVER to be caught empty-handed again, and quickly earned himself the nickname “Jingles”, for the sound his pockets made all over campus, full of coins, ready to “help” those in need.
Having myself interned at a homeless shelter in college, I was told the WORST thing you can do for someone who struggles with alcoholism or drug addiction, like the vast majority of homeless folks in our country, is to give them CASH, and FUEL their addiction. You might as well stick the needle in his arm, Dean Jingles. This is “when helping HURTS”. When it’s really about YOU, feeling good about yourself; NOT about getting that person the help they REALLY need, since that might prove to be a little more difficult than simply throwing some spare CHANGE at the problem. But that’s what hypocrisy does – it reduces people to PROBLEMS to be solved, so it can DISMISS them.
Thirdly, hypocrisy kills community by disparaging others. It discourages, it dismisses, and it DISPARAGES. To “disparage” is “to speak of or treat slightingly; to depreciate or belittle”. Hypocrisy judges and LOOKS DOWN ON others.
That’s what JESUS was referring to in Matthew 7(:1-5) when he cautioned, ““Judge not, lest you be judged… How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me help take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite!”
But that’s what hypocrisy does. Hypocrisy NEEDS to find specks in others’ eyes, so that one can AVOID the logs in his OWN eyes, and so judge oneself to be “better than” others.
I can still remember being in the locker room in high school, listening to teammates brag about how DRUNK they got last weekend, how FAR they got with their girlfriends, how much of their English paper they PLAGIARIZED without getting caught, and thinking all the while, “I thank you, God, that I am not like other teens: drunks, fornicators, and cheaters”. Right before I’d drive home and throw myself into my studies because my entire identity and self-worth was idolatrously bound up in my own academic success, and when the pressure got too overwhelming, I’d blow off steam by binging on porn for a few hours.
That’s hypocrisy. And it KILLS community by mentally disparaging – belittling – the other into the kind of person you don’t even WANT a relationship with, because you’re better than them.
#2 – Second overarching bullet point now: Hypocrisy kills our DISCIPLESHIP.
Peter makes this really clear when he CONFRONTS Ananias in v3: ““Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit”; v4: “You haven’t just lied to man but to God.”” And he reiterates it again in v8 with Sapphira: “You’re not testing ME, Peter; you’re testing the Spirit of the Lord”. Peter says: the biggest issue here isn’t even the HORIZONTAL one, the damaging effect your hypocrisy has on our community, OUR relationships; No, even WORSE than that is your VERTICAL offense – the rift your sin causes between you and GOD.’ Consider King David, who after stealing Uriah’s wife Bathsheeba, impregnating her, and then KILLING Uriah to cover it all up, David wrote: “Against you, you only, have I sinned, O God” (Psalm 51:4). ALL sin is first and foremost an affront to a holy, perfect God; it’s a discipleship issue.
And BECAUSE hypocrisy most significantly poses a threat to our relationship with GOD, I had planned to spend the bulk of our time this morning on point #2, but then I realized: it’s actually quite EASY to see why hypocrisy is such a danger to our discipleship. I don’t have THREE reasons for you this time; just ONE: Hypocrisy is the single deadliest sin to your discipleship, because it is the sin that will keep you from bringing all your OTHER sins to God in humble repentance, for forgiveness.
That’s SO vital, let me just repeat it one more time: “Hypocrisy is the deadliest sin to our relationship with God, because it preventsus from bringing our OTHER sins TO Him in repentance, for forgiveness. ”
I’ve been blessed to lead others in a variety of capacities throughout my career thus far; you know what I’ve always considered to be the single most important attribute, character trait, in someone I’m leading, whether it’s an employee I’m interviewing to hire, a younger believer I’m discipling, or in my previous life, a student I was teaching, an athlete I coached… the single most important quality I look for is TEACHABILITY. Because in spite of every OTHER shortcoming a person might have, as long as they’re teachable, coachable, mentor-able, you can, well, TEACH them, to improve!
But teachability requires HUMILITY. It requires the recognition that “I have not yet ARRIVED,” I’m still a work in progress; that perhaps I still have a thing or two that I could stand to LEARN from this boss, this teacher, this coach, this pastor.
And that is PRECISELY what makes hypocrisy so deadly, SPIRITUALLY; hypocrisy says, “I’ve ARRIVED.” It says, “Thank GOD I’m not like this tax collector; like all these other sinners.” And the danger is: you won’t confess and repent of sins that you’ve convinced yourself you no longer have!
Ananias and Sapphira looked at Barnabas and thought: “Now THERE’S a guy who’s got it together, spiritually. We wanna be like that. Or at the very least, we want to be SEEN like that.” But the problem was: they WEREN’T like that. And Barnabas wasn’t perfect, by the way, either; he didn’t PRETEND to be. But Ananias and Sapphira – they DID. If they had just acknowledged their sin, “Gosh, Barnabas really is incredibly generous. I wish WE could give that genuinely, cheerfully, willingly. But if I’m really honest, I REALLY want that new, third pair of shoes, like, even more than I desire to provide someone ELSE in the church with a FIRST pair of shoes. I know that sounds awful to admit, but it’s true. God – have MERCY on ME, a SINNER. Work on my heart and make me more selfless!” Ananias and Sapphira could have brought ANY amount to the offering box that day, if THAT was their heart, and God would have blessed their imperfect, yet HONEST gift.
But hypocrisy is all about projecting an IMAGE of someone you’re NOT. Someone who’s got it all together. Like the Pharisees, who Jesus called “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dea[th] and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matt 23:27-28). And it’s so deadly because RIGHTEOUS people don’t need saving; only SINNERS need a Savior. Jesus said, “The healthy have no NEED of a physician; only the SICK” (Mk 2:17). But friends, we are ALL sick. And one of the WORST ways our sin sickness MANIFESTS itself is through spiritual PRIDE – deceiving ourselves into believing we no longer need a Savior. Brothers and sisters: you and I need Jesus and His mercy and grace every BIT as much TODAY as we did the day we first believed and were saved. If anything, we should only become even more AWARE of just how sinful we really ARE, as we are further sanctified, and grow in the truth. And that ought to just make us that much more WORSHIPFUL of Jesus, for his perfect sacrifice that covers ALL our sin.
Psalm 32 rejoices: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away… But I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
James 5:16 even exhorts us to “confess your sins TO ONE ANOTHER.” I had sort of this idea, in preparing this message… “Sin-Sharing, Anti-Hypocrisy bulletin board”… how many of us would post? The apostle Paul would have been first in line: “I am CHIEF of sinners… I BOAST in my weaknesses…”
Finally, #3 – Hypocrisy is so deadly because it kills our MISSION. (v11)
Don’t miss how the passage concludes in v11: “And great FEAR came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things”. News of the first Christian funerals traveled fast. And the RESPONSE, from those OUTSIDE the church, wasn’t the “astonishment and perplexity” they had experienced at Pentecost (ch2). They weren’t “convicted and repentant” like they’d been after Peter’s first sermon (ch2). It wasn’t the “wonder and amazement” they’d felt after the apostles healed the lame man (ch3). No, NOW, for the first time, their response is FEAR. And I have to believe that a healthy fear of God wasn’t the ONLY fear these outsiders had. I imagine they feared that maybe this “church” thing isn’t all it’s cracked UP to be, if they’re letting people like Ananias and Sapphira in. I imagine some folks got scared off from joining, because they were afraid they’d end UP like Ananias and Sapphira; not necessarily struck DEAD by God, but that they’d end up… FAKE. Posers. “See, honey, I TOLD you those Christians are just like every other religion: that pressure to be a “good person” doesn’t actually PRODUCE better people; it just turns you into a HYPOCRITE. You just get better at HIDING all your faults, so you can look down your nose at others.” And who wants to be part of a community like THAT? I don’t wanna turn into someone like that. A phony.
79% of those outside the Church today have a less than favorable view OF the Church, and the #1 reason cited as to why, is “judgmentalism” and “hypocrisy”. (https://careynieuwhof.com/the-self-awareness-gap-what-non-christian-people-really-think-about-the-church/ ). Brothers and sisters, we believers of ALL people, ought to be the most OPPOSITE – the most gracious and REAL people on earth. We’re gracious because of how much grace we’ve been shown. And we’re REAL about our sins and shortcomings, because we have a real SAVIOR who has already PAID for them, and all we have to do is admit we’re sick and call on the doctor. Let’s pray.