Humiliating one's neighbor; the love of money

Any amount of wealth (or power) beyond one’s needs is power over other men and is the beginning of the process of humiliating one’s neighbor. 

The “love of power” and the “love of money” are the sinful spirit of the natural man. 

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”    1 Timothy 6:10 

The love of money is a spirit of the natural man. The natural man is the man (or woman) who is born in sin, born spiritually dead. God resurrects the spirit of some natural men when He saves them, that is when God makes Himself known to that man by giving spiritual new birth to that man sometime within the course of his/her life. The spirit of the natural man is also the spirit of the world and Satan.  The love of money starts to manifested in the accumulation of wealth over and above a man’s necessities. The evil in the spirit of the love of money accelerates the already corrupted heart of the man who is not born again. And that power is the power over other men.  Because the bottom line of the love of money is power over other men, the roles of leadership also fall under the sin of it. “Wealth” is power over other men and so leadership during the church age also became a form of power over other men. 

God was clear with Samuel about the consequences of the Jewish nation choosing men over God as kings. 

“He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day. Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.”    1 Samuel 8:17-20 

As a greedy man gathers wealth to Himself to dominate (humiliate) other men, so does the spirit of most leaders gather the flesh (attention, honor, worship) of other men to himself to dominate them. This takes the  form of that leader’s  policies, advice, interpretations of the truth and pretense of knowing what’s best for others better than themselves. This is worldly power and, it seems, one of the reasons God ended the church age; 

“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:”    Habakkuk 2:4-5 

The worldliness of leadership power in either political, religious, artistic, educational or scientific arenas gives birth to  the creation of personality cults. The gathering of “flesh” to follow a leader creates the mythology of that leaders  have special powers or virtues.  This idol worship of personalities takes away, for the followers, their direct dependence on God to unravel each follower's personal relationship with Him. Followers are deluded into thinking that their leader is necessary to be a mediator between each individual and God, instead of that individual being able to develop their personal relationship with God through His Word, the Bible, alone. The reason a person can seek God alone through His Word, the Bible, is because the discernment of God’s truth, including the truth of the personal relationship with God, is through the spirit of Christ (the Holy  Spirit) entering the heart/soul of that believer. God, through the spirit, applies the His Word to the heart of a believer directly.   

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”    Hebrews 11:1 

“Faith” in the scriptural sense is not the faith of men to believe in Christ but the faith of Christ, instilled in His spirit in a man who has become saved.  

“Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”    Matthew 23:1-8,11-12 

The group honoring  of leaders by their followers removes  the preciousness of God’s personal relationship with each individual believer. 

“There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease;……..” 

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”    Matthew 6:1-4 

The behaviors that are commanded in the above passages are behaviors that are earnestly sought, above all other behaviors, for those who have been given a new spiritual soul in Christ. Christ gives a sense of His perfect glory in an elect believer who, though not about to be perfect in his adherance to the Word of God, have in themselves and on going urgency to be in Christ, that is to do God’s will.  

“And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”    Luke 16:15