Any man-centered thinking brought to the biblical text blows a fuse at Acts 5.  Why did God treat the lying of Ananias and Sapphira as such a threat?  What’s really at stake here?  Would anyone else even know?  It’s hard to say.  Would anyone be hurt be this deception?  Probably not.  In fact, this man just gave a sum of money to be distributed to the poor, which means that people would be tangibly helped by this gift.  So why the death penalty?  We’d have to ask the same question regarding God snuffing out the lives of Nadab and Abihu in Lev. 10 or Uzzah in 2 Sam. 6.  Until God’s absolute holiness is understood and acknowledged along with the fact that he demands his holiness to be represented among his people, then these events in the Bible will make God seem like a vicious monster.  But if God was not committed to his holiness, then the world would be a chaotic, cesspool of immorality (a million times worse than it is now) and there would have never been the cross of Christ.  That’s why it’s essential to assess all things that occur in light of God’s glory and how much higher expectation does he have for the church, whom he gave his Son to atone for sin and to whom he gave his Spirit to cleanse from sin?—Eph. 5:25Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

We should never have any doubt that God is highly committed to accomplishing that and if we don’t see that kind of sanctifying grace being expressed in a group of people, then you can be certain that the Holy Spirit is not present in that group.