1. Acts 5:4 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why does Peter hold Ananias responsible when it was Satan who filled his heart?

Acts 5:4 (ESV)

4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Though Peter acknowledges that the temptation to sin came from Satan, he also asserts that Ananias himself is responsible for his sin. The apostle Paul similarly teaches that sin was the result of Adam’s fall in the past and now controls the behaviour of all people (Romans 5:12–21; Romans 7:7–24), and yet every human being is personally responsible for his own sinful actions (Romans 1:18 – 3:20).