Peter wanted Sapphira to see that this was no small slip but a lie the two of them had planned together. The land had been sold, part of the price kept back, "his wife also being privy to it" (Acts 5:2), and she had just repeated the same story (Acts 5:8). Barnes explains "agreed together" as "Conspired, or laid a plan," and adds that, it seems, Sapphira "had been no less guilty than her husband." To tempt the Spirit, Barnes says, was "to act as if the Spirit of the Lord could not detect the crime." Gill puts it as a test of "whether the apostles had the Spirit of the Lord, or not." Peter's question presses her to face that her lie was aimed at God, just as he had told Ananias, "thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:4).

Sapphira gave no answer. Peter's own words announced what was coming: "the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out" (Acts 5:9). "Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost" (Acts 5:10). The young men came in, found her dead, and "buried her by her husband." Luke closes the account with its effect: "great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things" (Acts 5:11).

In these early days believers "had all things common," and those who owned land or houses sold them and laid the money "at the apostles' feet" (Acts 4:32, 34-35). Barnabas had just done this (Acts 4:36-37). No one was forced to give. Peter told Ananias the land was "thine own" and the money "in thine own power" (Acts 5:4), so the sin was the lie, not keeping part of the price.

The Greek behind "agreed together" is synephonethe, from symphoneo, which Thayer defines as "to sound together, be in accord," a word first used of music. Here the two voices were in tune with a lie. Barnes explains that the young men "at the door" were just returning from burying Ananias, since "The dead were buried without the walls of cities," and about three hours, it seems, had passed.

This question shows that God takes truth in His church seriously. Peter treats lying to the Holy Ghost (Acts 5:3) as lying "unto God" (Acts 5:4), and here he calls it tempting "the Spirit of the Lord." The Spirit who had just filled the believers so that they "spake the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31) also saw what two people had agreed to hide.

Matthew Henry compares the couple to Adam and Eve: "As Adam and Eve, who agreed to eat the forbidden fruit, were turned together out of paradise, so Ananias and Sapphira, who agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, were together chased out of the world." He also notes that Sapphira fell at Peter's feet, the very place "where she should have laid the whole price and did not." Yet the judgment did not end the church's story. Great fear came on all (Acts 5:11), and "believers were the more added to the Lord" (Acts 5:14).