1 Kings 19-20 | Luke 23:1-25

“...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.” Philippians 2:12-13

Some of us may think that the Christian life is a list of things that we must do, should do, ought to do and supposed to do. We may even look at others around us and see how they serve in the church, pray in Life Groups and give to the church that we want to imitate their kind of faith. Yet, the Christian life is not living a life imitating what others are doing. Rather, the Christian life must be a work of the Holy Spirit indwelling our lives to will us to live according to the will of God.

In Acts 5:1-11, the story of Ananias and Sapphira gives us a sobering lesson of this truth. Just a few chapters before their story, Acts 2:44-45 tells us, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” Among the believers was a man named Joseph, whom the disciples called Barnabas. He “sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet” (Acts 4:37). Barnabas gave money that he received from selling his field to the apostles to distribute it where there was need. Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, saw what Barnabas did and thought, “That’s a wonderful thing to do. Barnabas is extremely well thought of because of this act.” As a result, Ananias and Sapphira—caught up by the excitement of this new movement—also sold a piece of property but secretly kept back a portion of the amount for themselves.

Then, Ananias brought some of the money and told the disciples that this was all the money that he and his wife received for the property. Yet, the Spirit revealed to Peter that Ananias lied; Peter confronted Ananias about what he did and sharply rebuked, “Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God” (Acts 5:4). Ananias and his wife made a conspiracy to outwardly pretend that what had been genuine in other people was genuine in them, but because of their lie, they dropped dead.

Sometimes, there is almost an irresistible pull to do the same thing as others, to mimic what others are doing out of the genuineness of their hearts in order for us to keep up or even do better than them. May we understand that the Christian life is not about imitating what others are doing but following the Spirit as He works in us to do God’s will.

PRAYER

Precious Jesus, I cannot live the Christian life by imitating others and their faith. I ask for Your Spirit to indwell me so that I am living the genuine Christian life with You. Thank You, Lord.