A recent Sunday School topic, based on Ananias and Sapphira, was “What changed between the days of the apostles and now?” And my Sunday School teacher kept returning to this question: “If nothing changed, why am I still walking around?”
He was being tactful, of course. The real question was: “If nothing changed, why are any of us Christians still walking around?” If lying to the Holy Spirit is a capital crime for Christians, why haven’t we all been slain? If pretending to be something we’re not deserves instant execution, why are any of us still breathing?
The class consensus was that something must have changed. But what exactly? None of us had a definitive answer.
As you can see, I’m still thinking about that challenging question.
The Pattern of Severe Judgment
Looking through Scripture, we find several examples where God’s judgment seems unexplainably harsh by today’s standards:
Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for lying about their offering to the early church, not for failing to give, but for pretending to give more than they actually did. (Acts 5:1-11)
Adam and Eve were banished from Eden for eating forbidden fruit, bringing death into the world for all humanity. (Genesis 3)
Achan was stoned to death (along with his family) for taking forbidden plunder after the battle of Jericho. (Joshua 7)
King Saul was rejected by God as king for partial obedience—he followed most of God’s instructions but not all. (I Samuel 15)
Uzzah died instantly for touching the Ark of the Covenant, even though he was trying to prevent it from falling. (II Samuel 6:1-7)
Each case involves swift, severe judgment that would leave most of us dead or severely punished if applied consistently today.
The Answer: Divine Examples
After wrestling with this question, my best conclusion is that these “unfortunate” individuals – along with all the other Bible characters – were chosen to serve as examples for the rest of us throughout history.
Scripture itself supports this interpretation. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:11, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.”
Through His chosen people—whether Israelites in the Old Testament or early Christians in the New—God had to make His message crystal clear. The seriousness of sin, the importance of obedience, and the reality of His holiness needed unmistakable demonstration.
These weren’t arbitrary acts of divine wrath. They were instructional moments, preserved in Scripture so that every generation could understand what God truly thinks about deception, disobedience, and treating holy things carelessly.
Ananias and Sapphira’s deaths taught the early church—and us—that hypocrisy and lying to God remain serious offenses even under the new covenant of grace. Achan’s judgment showed Israel that individual sin affects the entire community. Uzzah’s death demonstrated that good intentions don’t override God’s specific instructions about approaching His holiness.
The Sobering Truth
So why are we still walking around? Not because God has lowered His standards or become more lenient, but because these biblical examples continue to serve their purpose. Every time we read their stories, we’re reminded that our sins—the ones we think are “small” or “understandable”—are still serious in God’s eyes.
We live not because we deserve it, but because others paid the price to teach us the lessons we desperately needed to learn: God is holy, sin is serious, and His grace should never be taken for granted.
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