Is our gain just or are we earning more than is just?

[Leonardo Von]

Is our gain just or are we earning more than is just?

When someone cheats on someone else, they fancy that they came out profiting::

•    “It is bad! Bad, says the buyer; but when it is left to him, then he boasts.” (Proverbs 20.14).

They don’t perceive that they are swindling themselves:

•    “He who carefully seeks good gets favor; but he who seeks mischief, it shall come to him.” (Proverbs 11.27).
•    “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, and *they lie in wait for their own blood; they watch secretly for their own lives*. so are the ways of everyone who gains unjust gain; it takes away its owners' life.” (Pv 1.17-19).

After all:

•    “There is one who scatters and yet increases; but one who withholds just due comes only to poverty. The soul who gives freely shall be made fat; and he who waters shall also be watered himself. He who withholds grain, the people shall curse him; but blessing is on the head of him who sells.” (Proverbs 11.24-26).

The order is clear:

•    “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.” (Proverbs 3.27).

The noncompliance of this commandment will do the richness amassed unrighteously to cry out against who accrue them:

•    “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house. To put his nest on high, to be delivered from the hand of calamity! “You have devised a shameful thing for your house. By cutting off many peoples; So you are sinning against yourself. “Surely the stone will cry out from the wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework. (Habakkuk 2.9-11)
•    “Come now, rich ones, weep and howl for your hardships coming on. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their poison will be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh as fire. You heaped treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers reaping your fields cry out, being kept back by you. And the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived luxuriously on the earth, and lived wantonly. You have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.” (James 5.1-5).

So, if you yearn for the boons of the Creator and, of course, promissory days, be content with your wage:

•    “And the soldiers also asked of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said to them, Do not forcibly extort anyone, nor accuse any falsely. And *be content with your wages*.” (Luke 3.14).

This will preclude you of making the following mistake and, thus, to be a blessing:

•    “But if a man is upright, living rightly and doing righteousness, and has not given his money out at interest or *taken great profits*, and, turning his hand from evil-doing, has kept faith between man and man, ... life will certainly be his, says the Lord.” (Ezekiel 18.5,8,9). 

Remember: if one person is overeating, this person is eating the bread of someone else.