"But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?'" — Acts 5:3 (NKJV)
In Jordan Peele's psychological horror film Get Out, the terror doesn’t come from monsters hiding in the shadows—it comes from smiling faces, polite conversations, and false promises. It’s the horror of people pretending to be good while hiding deadly intentions beneath the surface. In a strikingly spiritual parallel, the biblical story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11) reveals that this kind of duplicity isn’t just cinematic—it’s a real danger in the life of faith.
🧠 The Horror Beneath the Surface
In Get Out, Chris, a young Black man, visits the family of his white girlfriend. What starts as awkward but seemingly harmless behavior from her liberal parents quickly devolves into a nightmare of manipulation, control, and exploitation. The family’s progressive language and faux allyship mask a sinister agenda: the theft of Black bodies through mind control and surgical possession.
This chilling facade of goodness is exactly what made the story so unnerving. The villains weren’t overt racists—they were socially refined, educated, and charming. Their masks made them more dangerous.
Likewise, in Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira appear to be generous church members. They sell a piece of property and publicly donate a portion of the proceeds, while secretly keeping back some for themselves. The issue wasn't the amount they gave—it was the lie they lived. They wanted the applause of sacrificial generosity without the actual sacrifice. Their pretense, masked in spiritual righteousness, was a direct affront to the Holy Spirit.
😇 The Danger of Spiritual Performance
Both Get Out and Acts 5 expose the terrifying power of hypocrisy:
Pretending to be generous while being self-serving
Using community (or religion) to gain power
Projecting goodness while hiding manipulation
In the church, spiritual performance can be its own kind of horror. When we wear a mask of righteousness to gain status, respect, or admiration, we become like Ananias and Sapphira—performing holiness rather than living it. We use sacred spaces for selfish ends.
This duplicity isn’t just a private flaw—it’s a public threat. In Acts, the lie wasn’t merely personal; it polluted the early church’s sense of trust and integrity. That’s why God’s judgment was so swift and severe. It was divine clarity: masks may fool people, but they never fool God.
💀 When Judgment Comes Swiftly
In Get Out, when Chris finally sees the truth, it’s almost too late. He’s paralyzed—literally—by the very people who claimed to care for him. The film’s horror is amplified by how long the pretense held up. The smile, the friendliness, the polite interest—they were all lies with fatal consequences.
In Acts, Peter unmasks Ananias with a single question: "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" Sapphira follows her husband in the same deception and meets the same end. Their masks of spiritual righteousness led them to sudden death.
It’s a sobering reminder: God cares deeply about truth in the inward parts. The early church was a place of radical honesty, generosity, and Spirit-filled power—and God was not willing to let hidden sin defile it.
🔍 Final Reflection: Removing the Mask
Ananias and Sapphira wanted to appear righteous without being righteous. The family in Get Out wanted to appear progressive while exploiting others for their own gain. In both stories, the mask was deadlier than any visible sin.
"Woe to you...hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." — Matthew 23:27 (NKJV)
The invitation today is to take off the mask. Whether it’s spiritual posturing, religious performance, or performative virtue—God is not interested in appearances. He wants truth. Integrity. A heart that seeks Him, not applause.
Because the greatest horror isn’t in the world outside. It’s the lie we live inside.
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