Dishonest gain and deceitful practices are strongly condemned in Scripture. In Proverbs, it is written that wealth obtained through fraud will ultimately prove to be unsatisfying and even harmful. Jesus teaches in Luke that faithfulness in small matters is a prerequisite for being entrusted with greater responsibilities, implying that dishonesty will disqualify one from true stewardship. The prophets, such as Micah, denounce those who scheme to defraud others, while Proverbs notes that riches gained through ill means will not bring lasting benefit, as seen in Proverbs 13:11 and 10:2.
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Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches? And if you have not been faithful with the belongings of another, who will give you belongings of your own? No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Dishonest wealth will dwindle, but what is earned through hard work will be multiplied.
Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands. They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance. Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’” Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot. “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.” Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly? But of late My people have risen up like an enemy: You strip off the splendid robe from unsuspecting passersby like men returning from battle. You drive the women of My people from their pleasant homes. You take away My blessing from their children forever. Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction— a grievous destruction! If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people! I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture— a noisy throng.
Ill-gotten treasures profit nothing, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but an accurate weight is His delight.
But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.