He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches. .. shall surely come to want.
Avarice
I. Oppression. “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches “(R.V., “gain”). Everywhere do we see avarice working out its designs, and building up its fortunes by oppressing the poor. The poor have necessarily to cross the seas, to delve in mines, to toil in fields, to work in manufactories, to slave in shops and counting-houses. But avarice cares nothing for the health, the liberty, the pleasures, the intellectual and social advancement of the poor. Avarice fattens on the miseries of poverty. The interest of others is nothing to the avaricious man in comparison with his own. He would be ever receptive, never communicative.
II. Sycophancy. “He that giveth to the rich.” Avarice, whilst tyrannic to the poor, is servile to the rich. The wealth it gets it employs with a miserable, crawling baseness, to win the favour and command the smiles of the wealthy and the great. A fawning sycophancy will eat out the true manhood of the civilised world. Souls bow down before the glitter of wealth and the pageantry of power. (Homilist.)