A Higher Standard
Scripture: Acts 5:3-5, 13-14
3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us but to God!" 5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified...13 no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord..."
Observations:
One of the craziest stories in the New Teatament is about a couple in the church who once lied to their pastor about a specific financial contribution they had recently made. But when Peter called them in and gave them an opportunity to tell the truth, they clung to their story and were instany struck dead- in Church! Their story shows us a few things: first, that God in fact does hold His people to high standards of integrity. Secondly, it shows that the apostles not only recognized those standards but upheld them even when the cost was great. What was the effect? Yes, it scared a lot of people straight and made them second guess joining their church. But, it also caused many more outside the church to take God seriously enough and made room for "more and more people to believe" (vs. 14).
Application:
Sometimes we get ourselves in trouble when we are more concerned with what people inside the church will think than what is the right thing to do. Granted it's much easier to shy away from having high standards in the church, but at what cost. Sometimes we more afraid of upsetting and losing a handful of people from our church than we are of offending God by lowering our standards to those of the world around us. But compromise didn't work for Ananias and Sapphira and it doesn't work today. Our job is not to play church politics and keep everbody "happy" all the time, it's to share the undiluted message of Jesus to the world around us by actually living by the standards He has clearly given in His Word. To add anything to them is legalism; to subtract anything from them is compromise. To allow anything to interfere with our adherance to the standards of Scripture is less than God intended.
Prayer:
Father, help us to value what you value and to live our lives to a higher standard. May we never excuse, ignore, or justify sin in our own lives or be afraid to confront it in our churches. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading Plan
3 Then Peter said, "Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. 4 How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us but to God!" 5 As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified...13 no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them. 14 Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord..."
Observations:
One of the craziest stories in the New Teatament is about a couple in the church who once lied to their pastor about a specific financial contribution they had recently made. But when Peter called them in and gave them an opportunity to tell the truth, they clung to their story and were instany struck dead- in Church! Their story shows us a few things: first, that God in fact does hold His people to high standards of integrity. Secondly, it shows that the apostles not only recognized those standards but upheld them even when the cost was great. What was the effect? Yes, it scared a lot of people straight and made them second guess joining their church. But, it also caused many more outside the church to take God seriously enough and made room for "more and more people to believe" (vs. 14).
Application:
Sometimes we get ourselves in trouble when we are more concerned with what people inside the church will think than what is the right thing to do. Granted it's much easier to shy away from having high standards in the church, but at what cost. Sometimes we more afraid of upsetting and losing a handful of people from our church than we are of offending God by lowering our standards to those of the world around us. But compromise didn't work for Ananias and Sapphira and it doesn't work today. Our job is not to play church politics and keep everbody "happy" all the time, it's to share the undiluted message of Jesus to the world around us by actually living by the standards He has clearly given in His Word. To add anything to them is legalism; to subtract anything from them is compromise. To allow anything to interfere with our adherance to the standards of Scripture is less than God intended.
Prayer:
Father, help us to value what you value and to live our lives to a higher standard. May we never excuse, ignore, or justify sin in our own lives or be afraid to confront it in our churches. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading Plan
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