Does Truth Matter?

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held
together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working
properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."
(Ephesians 4:11-16, ESV)
It seems the early church had some very familiar misunderstandings. I mean, people just didn't seem to get it. A lot of the time. About a lot of things. Take the case of Ananias and Saphira. Just for a little misunderstanding, God zapped them, right on the spot! Wow, talk about a big mix-up. Now I don't know about you, but that seems like overkill to me (please excuse the pun). Okay, let's see if we can sort this out. Ananias and Saphira were two of your middleclass Christians, trying to help the poor, just as good ol' Barnabas had. Nothing wrong there, right? And, according to Peter himself, they had the right to set the price for sale of the land they owned, right? And they were free to give as much of the money as they wanted to help the poor, correct? Or they could have given just a little bit. As I understand the story, there was no set percentage, no certain amount that was to be given to the church to feed the poor. So what's the big deal? Did I miss something? Isn't feeding the poor part of what the church does?
“ 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?”
(Acts 5:3, ESV) But I thought Ananias had lied to Peter, not to the Holy Spirit. So how is lying to Peter construed to be lying to God? Peter isn't God, so why the big deal? If someone in the church lies to another Christian today, is that the same thing? Ananias and his dear wife, Saphira, were scheming. Why on earth would they want to tell a lie about the land and the money? Seems from the context that our friend Barnabas was getting a bit of popularity for taking a piece of land, selling it and then giving all of the money to the apostles for distribution to the poor. If you read the whole story in Acts 5, Peter had no problem with anyone keeping
part of the money from the sale of property. People didn't even have to sell the land and give the money to the church. But lying . . . Now, there's another problem. Lying is so much a part of society today that people do it without blinking an eye. Lying is used to cover up mistakes, to get what one wants, to fool others. It was such a problem in the time of Christ that even Pilate, when Jesus said that He was here to bear witness to the truth, sarcastically replied, "What is truth?” (John 18:37) Lying is so much a part of our world that I can remember when I was nine years old, the reply of an elderly Christian woman when I said that I wanted to become a lawyer when I grew up, “You can't be a good lawyer unless you lie.” Lying brings down governments. Lying brings about wars. Lying destroys marriages. Lying estranges us from loved ones. Lying separates us from God. It is politically correct to lie in our age. But is it Biblical? According to the passage in Ephesians 4, we are to grow up in Christ. We grow up by learning to speak the truth, in love. Real love is truthful. Again, why did God kill Ananias and Saphira (Peter certainly didn't do it!)? The apostles had been filled with the Holy Spirit. If Peter couldn't have detected a lie in this little area, people would have doubted the truth of the gospel
message. The church cannot be built on lies. There is no earthly reason known to man to rationalize lying. It is not a venial sin, as taught by certain religious organizations. A venial sin, according to that interpretation, is a sin that does not separate one from God. On the contrary, all sin separates us from God. Lying is the very first sin we find in the Bible, perpetrated by none other than Satan himself, the Father of lies, in order to try and destroy God's creation. In
the church, lying is deadly. No, I haven't been zapped for lying. But I respect God's word and I know that He sent His Son to die for lying as well as for other sins. I also know that He
intends for me to grow up, to put away childish tendencies. Lying is one of the most vicious habits a person can get into and only the blood of our dear Savior and the power of the Holy Spirit can help us to break the chains of that deadly habit. In a sense, when we lie to one another in the church, we are lying to our Savior. Think about it. In the church of Jesus Christ, there is no politcal correctness. There is only the truth of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ, and He was willing to die for truth. Where do we stand on this matter? "I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of truth." (I Timothy 3:15, ESV)