Luke’s work, his Gospel and Acts, are among my favorite things in the Bible. But there is a story in Acts which may give us pause.

The early Christians in Jerusalem sold all their possessions and gave it to the church. They lived a communal life. (Acts 4:32)

Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold some land and gave part of the money to the church.

But they told the church they gave all of it.

Somebody found out and Peter confronted Ananias.

“How could you do this? Peter asked him. “You did not lie to us. You lied to God.”

And as soon as Peter said this, Ananias dropped dead at Peter’s feet. Peter called on some young men to carry the body away.

Later that day Sapphira came in, not knowing her husband was dead.

Peter asked her if she and her husband had sold their land for a certain sum of money.

“Yes,” she said, “that was the price.”

“You have schemed together to test the Spirit of the Lord,” Peter told her.

“Look over there,” he said. “You will see the young men who buried your husband. They will carry you out, too.”

And Sapphira dropped dead at Peter’s feet, just as her husband had.

And, we are told, “great fear seized the whole church.”

Yes, I think it would.

The implication is that God killed Ananias and his wife for lying about their offering.

I have a question for you—and I need answers from a lot of people. This is for my sermon a week from this Sunday.

Question: Did God kill Ananias and Sapphira?

Please give a reason for your answer.

My e-mail address is below.

revmaxb@tx.rr.com

We are in trouble as a nation because many Christians have such a strange idea of the Gospel.

Clearly, they don’t seem to know the Gospel I know and preach.

Which I think of as the Gospel of mainstream Christianity.

Consider this:

One of the guys on that debate stage last week is supported by Christians, racial hate groups, and Neo-Nazis.

Strange combination.

Why would Christians be with racists and Nazis?

Paul tells us to be careful about the company we keep. I would call Nazis bad company.

Yet there they are, Christians with bad guys.

But this is a different kind of Christianity.

It has nothing to do with the Christianity I know.

Let me say something that may sound a bit radical here: All who use the name “Christian” do not worship the same God.

Someone wrote to me recently, “You went so far as to say that God is only a God of love.”

He said that’s not true, then he listed some really mean things he says God did. He wants me to know God is a rough customer.

Another said to me, “God does not love all people. God loves only the people who keep his commandments.”

Here are two Christians who do not believe in grace, God’s unconditional love for all humankind.

Their idea of “God” is so different from my idea of “God” that I don’t think we share the same religion.

Yet, we are all called “Christians.”

But some Christians see God as love. Some see God as stern and exclusive.

And the meaner your God is, the more likely it is you will find yourself marching in lockstep with racists and Nazis.

Most of the stuff on the internet about the Bible is from conservative sources.

Ever notice that?

I came across this: “When we are born again, we are adopted into the family of God.”

Adopted!

Where from? God made us. Did he give us to somebody else after that?

The writer goes on to say, “Before we are adopted, we are enemies. When we accept Christ, we become children.”

Now, that explains it! That’s why we Christians can be so mean to Jews, Muslims, and Hindus. They are not children of God!

God didn’t adopt them!

Just us!

Only we are God’s children. Those other folks are still enemies.

We are really somebody.

They are—not so much.

The writer continues: “When we are born again, God treats us differently—as family.”

Wow! Did he say that?

Somebody. please, pick my teeth up off the floor. This writer is willing to contradict a central tenet of Jesus’ teaching: God treats everyone the same.

God “sends the rain on the just and the unjust.”

God “is kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.”

God loves all of us.

As we are.

And we are all God’s children. Natural born. No adoption necessary.

The church is not an exclusive club.

It is not a gathering of the saintly saved.

It is, rather, a gathering of people who know that God loves all humankind.

Every person on earth benefits from God’s grace.

God’s love covers all, excludes none.

And the little song got it right: “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

How consistent is your theology? Do you have any contradictions in it?

Do you believe some things that do not fit with other things you believe?

You may say in the words of scripture that “God is love.”

You may believe that deeply and sincerely. But do you also believe that God does some things that are not loving?

And if you believe that God is love but does unloving things, how do you work that out?

Jesus told us in Luke 6:35 that “God is kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.”

He doesn’t modify this in any way. He is telling us that God treats everyone with love all the time.

This is the nature of God—to love and love only.

Do you believe this?

Or do you believe 1 Samuel 15 where God orders the destruction of the Amalekites?

God is quoted as saying, “Go attack the Amalekites. Do not spare them. Kill both man and woman, child and infant.”

If God did this, God is not love. God is not kind to everyone all the time.

So, what is your choice?

What image of God do you choose?

You can’t choose both. The two images of God are contradictory.

Back to my first question: Do you have a consistent theology?

Or is your theology—your belief system—just a mixed up mess?

If it is a mess, I have a suggestion for you: Just accept what Jesus taught us about God. Accept it completely.

God is love. God loves even his enemies. God is kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.

Let Jesus have the final word. He alone is Lord.

Accept no substitutes.

Steven Weinberg said, “Without religion, good people would do good things and bad people would do bad things.”

“It takes religion,” he said, “to make good people do bad things.”

The late Nobel laureate was a renowned physicist and devout atheist.

I don’t often agree with him. But I agree that religion can make good people do bad things.

Nonbelievers are often kinder toward people with differences than Christians.

They are often accepting of gay folks and advocate for equal rights for women and people of all races and religions.

Give me a gracious atheist over a mean Christian any day.

But what makes some Christians mean?

The Bible.

That is, the Bible read by people who don’t know how to read it.

People who absolutely refuse to put Jesus first.

There are Old Testament passages that say people with disabilities must be kept away from worship.

A blind or a crippled person will defile a holy place. They don’t count as people.

Paul tells women to be submissive to men and to be quiet in church. They have a second-class existence.

The Book of Revelation paints God as warmonger, bloodthirsty, and vengeful.

In reading the Bible, we must always turn to Jesus for the final answer.

If we put Jesus first, we will know when Paul gets off track. We will know when a passage of scripture falls short.

Jesus is the standard.

He tells us that God loves all of us equally and unconditionally.

If Jesus is Lord, let him be lord of the scriptures also. Accept no substitutes.