The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 170

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-10.-.A. fatal forgeifulne.~!. There are several truths which this saJ incident suggests to us. We may view them thus- I. THAT A NEW ENTERPRISE 111AY SURVIVE A VERY DAMAGING BLOW. It was a ,cry serious misfortune to the new Church that two of its members should commit a sin worthy of death, and pay that terrible penalty in the view of all. The apostles must have felt that they and the cause with which they were ident:ficd bad receive<l a severe blow; but it was far from being a fatal one. It was one from which the causB of Christ soon recovered; nay, it was overruled" for the furtherance of the gospel." Lei not any Church or any sacred cause be too much disheartened by a check at the be.ginning. With truth and God on its side, it will survive and flourish. !L TIIAT VERY SERIOUS SIN MAY BE CONNECTED WITH AN ACT WHICH IS OUTWARDLY vraTUous AND GODLY. To those who looked on as Ananias and Sapphirn brought the money they did bring and laid it at the feet of the apostles, their action must have seemed pious and generous in a very high degree. But we know it to have been utterly and even fatally defective. It becomes us to search with fearless and faithful &lance those of our deeds which men approve as most commendable, lest, while around us is approval and congratulation, there should be entered in the book of account in heaven a sin of great enormity against our name. Ill. THAT WE MAY BE COMMITTING A HEINOUS SIN IN AN ACTION WHICH SEEMS VE= TO OURSELVES. In all likelihood, Ananias and Sappbira imagined that they were doiui; an action which, while it was calculated to win respect, was not very, if at all, reprehen- sible in itself. 'l'hey probably reconciled it to their own sense of rectitude. Men do so now, In connection with religion and philanthropy they do guilty things which kindle the wrath of the righteous Lord, supposing that they are only departing a few degrees from integrity, or are even worthy of praise. "·who can understand his errors'! Cleanse thou me from secret faults." IV. THAT IT IS A FALSE AND MOST PERILOUS THING TO SUPPOSE THAT THE GOOD CONNECTED WITH ANY COURSE WILL COUNTERBALANCE SOME ONE SERIOUS SIN THERElli. Ananias and Sapphira. may haYe thought that the piety and charity of their conduct would more than balance the sin of their deception. 'l'hey were miserably wrong and were fearfully disabused of their mistake. If we wilfully break one of God's plain com- mandments, supposing that the virtues of our action will cancel the wrong, and thus allow ourselves to foll into deception (as here), or into dishonesty, or into excess, or into arrogance and pride, we shall have a sad and, it may be, a rude and awful awakening from our grievous error, V. THAT THEBE IS A FORGETFULNESS WHICH 18 NOTHING LESS THAN FATAL. Anani:u 166 TllE ACTS OF 'l'HE APOS1'LH8. [CH, V, 1-42,