The poor have a much harder life than those who have more material possessions and better living conditions. Poverty often leads to disease, oppression and a much shorter earthly life. Living in poverty has never been desirable, but there is something much worse, according to Scripture:
… better to be poor than a liar. (Prov 19:22)
Those seven words are power packed by merely comparing the poor to liars. Though that verse does not tell us the details why it is better to be poor than a liar, other verses make it explicitly clear, such as Rev. 21:8. Clearly, to be a liar is to be without eternal life!
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. (Rev 21:8)
All liars will go to the fiery lake of burning sulfur, according to God! Such is never the case for just being poor. This is important information to remember, for one of the main ways the devil will tempt (test) us is with money and material possessions, as with Job. That means we must not lie for the sake of getting money. That is the point of Prov. 19:22. It is better to be truthful and poor than to be a liar and rich because of it, for all liars will go to the fiery lake of burning sulfur! Lying, therefore, is much more serious than many church people tend to think. Apparently, Ananias and Sapphira didn’t realize that and would be of that number! Remember, it is better to be poor than a liar (Prov 19:22).