The Lord Jesus declared that Satan told the fist lie, saying, “He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). The first lie told was by Satan in Eden when he said to Mother Eve, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). This was false because a contradiction to God’s plain statement, “Thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Satan’s lie was the cause of the disobedience of the first man which resulted in the sentence of Adam to death, and which death sentence by inheritance has passed upon all of his offspring (Romans 5:12). Ananias was an offspring of Adam. He was born under the condemnation of death, “shapen in sin and brought forth in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). Therefore, the natural tendency was downward, therefore we must continually fight against evil and our own natural tendencies.
We are not familiar with an “Ananias Club,” but it sounds horrible and sinful.
Let’s look further into who Ananias was. There were three men with this name. The one referenced is was a the time early Christians were pooling their resources to support one another in order to further advance the gospel message. Ananias and his wife Sapphira underreported the profit they received from the sale of their property and proclaimed a support for Christianity that was untrue:
Acts 5:1-4: (NASB) But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and kept back some of the price for himself, with his wife’s full knowledge, and bringing a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the holy spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.
To underreport any matter can be as thoroughly damaging as exaggerating it. Engaging in an act of minimization can easily become a tool of exaggeration that falsifies our thoughts or position to appear godlier than we are. Minimization is negative exaggeration. Ananias and Sapphira wished to appear holier than others by giving the proceeds from the sale of a piece of property to the communal coffers. This was, however, just a “show” of humility and humble giving. In reality, they kept back some of the money. The sin here was not that they did not give all the proceeds, but that they said they did. There was no insistence by the apostles that the property be sold. There was no shame in giving just a portion of the sale to the communal funds. But lying to God is a grave sin and they paid for it with their lives.
Making a show of how we are humble or holy is also an exaggeration by minimizing for showy motives. When we put on a show of reverence or piety without truly feeling it in our hearts, we are using a negative exaggeration that grieves God. We have to be careful to not be too big OR too small! Ananias and Sapphira were exaggerating their dedication to Christ and to God. They wanted the attention; look at what we have done! This was lying!
We can fall into this too. We might put on a humble demeanor just for attention or to fit in. This is falsely minimizing our pride by exaggerating our piety when, in fact, we are being very proud in saying how humble we are! This is not an easy thing to correct. We must work to instruct our hearts to truly feel humble and pious. God will give us the experiences to teach us. The sin here is when we pretend this behavior is acceptable in order to seek attention.
Can we escape exaggeration? No, so we must learn to approach, deal with and cope appropriately.
Additional Resource:
Christian Questions Podcast
Episode #1178: “Is There a Difference Between Exaggerating and Lying?”
Calling out the damage of misrepresentation and exaggeration
Preview Video
CQ Rewind Show Notes
