Envy

Do not envy the oppressor,

And choose none of his ways;

For the perverse person is an abomination to the LORD,

But His secret counsel is with the upright.

Proverbs 3:31-32

History overflows with personalities who gained great power and wealth by forcibly subjugating others to do their will.  This dirty struggle for power mars great kingdoms and local businesses alike.  It can lead to a sort of sad despair in thinking that an honest person may simply not be able to get ahead in the world.  It may even seem attractive to take on worldly ways of living and grasping after power as part of the same dirty system.  The injunction of Scripture, however, is quite clear.  While the oppressor may have much to envy the one who knows the living God has nothing to envy.  Those short term gains bring only sorrow and trouble to those who make them and history is littered with the evidence of what results from power abused, as well as the example of those who walk in wisdom and inherit glory (Proverbs 3:35).