Acts 5:4

Was it not thine own?] Clear proof that the apostolic communism was voluntary. Unto God] Ananias had lied unto men, but the sin against man was so insignificant, compared with the sin against God, that St. Peter rhetorically calls it no sin at all. 6. Wound him up] others render, 'composed his limbs.'

The truth of the narrative of Ananias and Sapphira is guaranteed by its painful character. No historian would have gone out of his way to invent it. The punishment of death seems severe, but it must be remembered that our Lord's most severe denunciations were against hypocrisy. To brand religious hypocrisy for all time as infamous, seems to be the object of this miracle. It is not necessary to suppose that Ananias and Sapphira were eternally lost. After this terrible punishment, they may have been forgiven.