Reflecting on Acts 5:1-11“Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?” (Acts 5:4)
This story challenges my view of God; does a God of love slay people for lying?
If this was how God worked, how many people would drop dead in church today?
I always assumed that God took their lives, but the passage doesn’t say this.
I don’t know exactly how they died, but I do not blame God for it.
Actually, this story is like the story of the demons and the pigs (Matthew 8:28–34).
It was the demons that asked to be put into the pigs, and then killed them.
And the reason was to scare the townspeople away from Jesus; and it worked!
In this story too, Satan fills their hearts, and they die.
And great fear seizes the community here too, a fear that skews their view of God.
This story is a test for my theory about God as a God of love.
Because God is love, I cannot and do not blame God for their deaths.
God graciously blessed them, and did not demand anything from them except love.
God wanted them to reflect His love with everything at their disposal, however they wanted to.
Actually, this story should test our love, to make us think about how we show love.
Everything I have is mine to freely use, but will I use it to freely love like God loves me?
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank You for reminding me that God does not simply kill people for lying, and that God is a God of love and life, not a God of fear and death. May God's love (and not Satan's lies) so fill my heart that I am drawn to generously loving others, and not selfishly serving myself.
1 We give thee but thine own,
whate’er the gift may be;
all that we have is thine alone,
a trust, O Lord, from thee.
2 May we thy bounties thus
as stewards true receive
and gladly, as thou blessest us,
to thee our first fruits give.