Acts 5:11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And great fear came upon all, &c.— In the striking narrative before us, we have an example of the severest temporal punishment inflicted throughout the New Testament; a punishment inflicted by the apostle, not out of a spirit of passion, cruelty, or revenge, but by a prophetic spirit; not by the sword of the magistrate, or by any power of his own, but by a miraculous and divine power; punishing a notorious lie, which was made to tempt or try the Holy Spirit in the beginning of his peculiar oeconomy or dispensation. Thus was the dignity of the Spirit of God vindicated, and the honour of the apostles of our Lord maintained: for hereby it was plain, that they had the spirit of truth and of power, by which they could easily detect and punish the spirit of falsehood; and that they made no pretensions to the Spirit, in which that Spirit would not bear them out. This was exercising the apostolic rod: but we must always remember, that the power was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the apostles had only an impulse of the Spirit upon their minds, by which they were enabled to foretel such extraordinary and divine judgments. Porphyry accused St. Peter as cruel, for inflicting this punishment; to which the ancients well answered: "The apostle did by no means "pray for their deaths; but by the prophetic spirit denounced the judgment of God upon them, that the punishment of two persons might be for the instruction of many." Indeed, such severity in the beginning of Christianity was highly proper, in order to prevent any occasion for similar punishments in future. Thus Cain, the first murderer, was most signally punished by the immediate hand of God, as were Sodom and Gomorrah, which, in the early ages, were distinguished for their filthiness and abominations. Thus, upon the erecting of God's temporal kingdom among the Jews, Nadab and Abihu were struck dead for offering strange fire before the Lord; and Korah and his company were swallowed up alive by the earth, for opposing Moses, the faithful minister of the Lord; and lastly, Uzzah, for touching the ark, fell by as sudden and remarkable a divine judgment, when the kingdom was given to be established in the house of David, to teach Israel a reverence for God and divine things. Nay, in establishing even human laws, a severe punishment upon the first transgressors often prevents the punishment of others, who are deterred from like attempts by the suffering of the first criminals. And the effect in the present case was accordingly; for a great dread and unusual awe fell upon all the Christian church; and not upon them alone, but upon all others also who saw or heard of what had happened. We may just remark, that this is the first place in which the word church is mentioned; and here is a native specimen ofa New Testament church, called by the gospel, initiated by baptism, animated by love, united by holy and divine fellowship, and disciplined by the exemplary punishment of hypocrites.