Tuesday 28, July 2026

Siblings

Reading, reflecting and sharing with you all has afforded me new insights into God’s Word. I don’t think I’ve seen the connection between the various chapters and subsections in Acts as I’m now doing.

Thank you for embarking on this journey with me. To those who’ve recently joined, thanks for reading, and hopefully, engaging Scripture differently. Some of you have joined mid-road, and your comments (public and private), even your silence and consistency, are sources of encouragement. Others of you have been part of this 11+year story. You’ve been stalwart supporters who offered behind-the-scenes ideas that have strengthened the content and kept me going. Thank you all. I pray that you have also been inspired by the reflections on the Nougats (the Nougat is the Scripture, not the reflection) and that we continue to grow in faith each day.

As we continue our reflections on the early believing community, we find that there are so many parallels to our faith communities now. Today’s Holy Nougat offers an interesting perspective on integrity and faith.

Acts 5:1-2a CEVDCI

[1] Ananias and his wife Sapphira also sold a piece of property.

[2] But they agreed to cheat and keep some of the money for themselves.

Integrity before God 1

Integrity refers to our honesty, moral principles, and, to a lesser extent, the public’s perception of both. Google AI suggests that integrity is marked by five core values, viz: Honesty, Accountability, Consistency, Respect, and Trustworthiness. We tend to assume that when someone commits their life to God, integrity is automatic to their transformation. Unfortunately, that isn’t necessarily the case. It wasn’t even the case in the early church. For amidst the generous givers of the time, there were also Ananias and Sapphira.

Self-Check

Many of us value our reputation over all else in public spaces. Do we guard our integrity as much as the public perception of our integrity?

Digging Deeper

Having mentioned Joseph the Cypriot as one of those who sold property to support the community of believers, Luke introduces another pair of supporters. This is a husband and wife team who decided to also sell their property to support the church. We don’t know much about them beyond their agreement to keep some of the proceeds from the property sale. It is unfortunate, since we don’t know whether they had a reputation for being schemers. What we do know is that in the very special stewardship season, those two kept back a bit for themselves.

Before jumping on the wagon of judgmentalism, let’s ponder – doesn’t everyone do that nowadays? It might not be in relation to giving the monies from a property sale. We might all be very honest about ‘God’s money’. But some of us justify why we should tithe on the net rather than on gross. Others of us don’t hold ourselves totally accountable at work – we underpay staff, we block others’ capacity to rise in the workplace, we lie about having no money when others come begging. Aren’t those also a lack of integrity? And in so doing, we misrepresent God.

Siblings, if, as the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 137, there is nowhere that we can escape God’s presence; if God perceives our every thought before it becomes action; and since God is even there when we think the thought (remember Y’shua often responded to the thoughts of the people and not only what they said), then each time we act outside of or with integrity we do so in God’s presence.

Sometimes the choice isn’t as straightforward as it seems. It is possible that Ananias and Sapphira planned to withhold some of the funds in advance. That’s how they are usually depicted. Yet, money is one of the great temptations many of us face. What if the value of their property was so increased at the time of the sale that they felt they should only give what they thought the market value would have been? If they had already guesstimated the revenue, they may have determined to give a set amount. On receiving more, the issue was whether to retain the extra or give it all. When faced with all the things we could do if we held back a little, only tithe on the net rather than the gross, prevent a promotion or lie about our funds (to the tax collector or the beggar on the street), we can usually justify our actions. But it isn’t about what we tell ourselves; it is always about whether God is pleased with our integrity.

Point to Ponder

What if Christ withheld a little bit of His sacrifice on our behalf? Where would we be today?

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May all we seek be found in Christ