1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls. 4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin. 5You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children,
“My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when you are reproved by him;
6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? 8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children. 9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. 11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 12Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
14Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord, 15looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it, 16lest there be any sexually immoral person or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. 17For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.
18For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, 19the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them, 20for they could not stand that which was commanded, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned”. 21So fearful was the appearance that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”
22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, 23to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
25See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven, 26whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more” signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. 28Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can’t be shaken, let’s have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29for our God is a consuming fire.
The events of Acts 5:1-11 must be understood along with the communal living practiced by the early church (Acts 2:44-45). This explains Ananias and Sapphira's decision to sell their property and give the proceeds to the church. Here, they sold their property and gave part of the proceeds to the church but the couple publicly misrepresented that they had given all the money to the church. Their sin was not that they had kept back part of the proceeds for themselves. Peter notes, "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control?" Rather, their sin related to the fact that they had misrepresented their level of generosity, which involved a lie to God (Acts 5:4b).
Although the church had experienced external attacks, this event marks the first of several internal attacks against the church. Since the church was at a vulnerable place in its infancy, God dealt drastically with this sin by prematurely terminating the lives of Ananias and Sapphira. Such drastic discipline had a purifying effect on the church by deterring other believers from committing the same sin (Acts 5:11).
Ananias and Sapphira seem to have been believers since the church became afraid as a result of what happened (Acts 5:11). The church feared, since one of its own had been killed. The fact that Satan had filled their hearts (Acts 5:3) does not disqualify them from being believers since Satan can influence believers who yield to the sin nature (Eph 4:26-27). Although a believer can never be a candidate for eternal retribution (Rom 5:9), God can discipline believers in order to deter them from sin (Heb 12:5-11). Sometimes this discipline can be severe, even taking the form of death (1 Cor 11:30).