Acts 5:3-4

Acts 5:3-4

[3] But  Peter  said,  Ananias,  hath Satan  filled  heart  to lie  to the Holy  Ghost,  and  to keep back  part of  the price  of the land?  [4] Whiles it remained,  was it not  and  after it was sold,  was it not  in  thine own  power?  why  hast thou conceived  thing  in  heart?  not  lied  unto men,  but  unto God. 

What does Acts 5:3-4 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to fill him (cf. Acts 2:4; Acts 4:8; Acts 4:31), Ananias had allowed Satan to control his heart. Ananias" sin was lying. He sought to deceive the Christians by trying to gain a reputation for greater generosity than he deserved. By deceiving the church, Ananias was also trying to deceive the Holy Spirit who indwelt the church. In attempting to deceive the Holy Spirit, he was trying to deceive God. Note the important identification of the Holy Spirit as God in these verses. His sin was misrepresenting his gift by claiming that it was the total payment that he had received when it was really only part of that. Since believers could keep their money, the Jerusalem church did not practice socialism or communism. Ananias" sin was hypocrisy, a particular form of lying.
"I am a preacher of the Word-a glorious privilege-and if I have prayed once I have prayed a thousand times and said, "Don"t let me be able to preach unless in the power of the Holy Ghost." I would rather be struck dumb than pretend it is in the power of the Spirit if it isn"t; and yet it is so easy to pretend. It is so easy to come before men and take the place of an ambassador for God, and still want people to praise the preacher instead of giving the message only for the Lord Jesus." [1]
Achan, as well as Ananias and Sapphira, fell because of the love of material possessions (cf. 1 Timothy 6:10; 2 Timothy 4:10).
"Like Judas, Ananias was covetous; and just as greed of gain lay at the bottom of most of the sins and failures in the Acts -the sin of Simon Magus, the opposition of Elymas, of the Philippian "masters" and the Ephesian silversmiths, the shortcomings of the Ephesian converts and the injustice of Felix-so Ananias kept back part of the price." [2]
Lying to the Holy Spirit is a sin that Christians commit frequently today. When Christians act hypocritically by pretending a devotion that is not theirs, or a surrender of life they have not really made, they lie to the Holy Spirit. If God acted today as He did in the early Jerusalem church, undertakers would have much more work than they do.