In calling His disciple perverse, Litton said, Jesus homed in on the disciples’ “bent to twist something that’s true and contort it to where it’s barely recognizable.”
Jesus’ compassion toward the demon-possessed boy in Matthew 17 is an exhortation to believers.
“What do we hear from Jesus? He says you need to repent and you need to take action,” Litton said. “You need to stop seeing people as the object of your success, and you need to love like Jesus loves.”
Jesus showed His compassion by continually going around teaching and healing. He saw those in need and felt their pain in His gut.
Litton, who is not seeking a second term as president, said he is not cynical of Southern Baptists.
“I love this Convention. I believe the greatness of the Southern Baptist Convention is not in our heroes and not in the more famous ones,” he said. “It’s not in all the authors. Those are great people.
“But I’m telling you it is the faithful people who serve the Lord, much without recognition, that are going to ash-out the burned-out homes in their neighborhood, who are helping the flood victims, who are getting on planes and flying to Poland to help refugees,” he said. “It’s compassion. It stands to reason that we should have compassion as the hallmark of who we are.”
Litton described 2022 as a gut punch for Southern Baptists.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that when you read the (SATF) report, you felt a gut punch. But we must do something,” he said. “Jesus’ gut punch was He saw something. He felt something. He did something. That’s His pattern. It needs to be our pattern too.
“When you see something, don’t look away. If you see something, God in His sovereignty let you see it.
“If Jesus is the center of it all, then we must see something and not let our eyes look away because it’s horrible, or because it’s bad news or incriminating.
“We must do what is right and just in the eyes of our God.”
This article originally appeared here.
