“‘King Nebuchadnezzar, please accept my advice. Stop sinning and do what is right. Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Perhaps then you will continue to prosper’” (Daniel 4:27, NLT). Let me just add part of a verse, “…the righteous shows mercy and gives” (Psalm 37:21b, NKJV).

The context of the verse in Daniel is, of course, Daniel in Babylon. The king has had a dream that God is going to severely humble him until he learns that God rules kingdoms and gives them to whomever He wishes. It struck me to read Daniel’s advice. He doesn’t say put on sackcloth and humble yourself, acknowledge the Lord and what He’s done for you. He says stop sinning and do what is right.

Can we make that parallel to the next sentence? Break from your wicked past and be merciful to the poor. Stop sinning: break from your wicked past. Do what is right: be merciful to the poor. You could boil that all down to “be merciful to the poor”. That’s what King Nebuchadnezzar needed to do from Daniel’s point of view, in his wisdom, in order to maybe have God relent from his plan. I’ve been saddened recently at knee-jerk reactions to people who talk about helping the poor, labeling it “Social Gospel!” No, helping the poor is what Christians do.

If you aren’t showing mercy to the poor in some way, then you are disobeying large swaths of the Bible. The social gospel isn’t helping the poor. The social gospel is making the “help” the good news, instead of the cross of Christ. Those carrying the cross with them to show God’s love to the poor are ministering in the name of Jesus and to the glory of the Father. If you don’t care about your poor brethren, then you are missing something of the love of God. It’s the righteous who show mercy and give.