Emphasis Preaching Journal

After a long and stormy letter to a difficult church, Paul ended his epistle with a gentle challenge. He talked about dealing gently with those that had fallen. Paul challenged his Galatian friends to fulfill the law of Christ by bearing each other's burdens.

In the latter years of his ministry, the great preacher, Carlyle Marney, ran Interpreter's House, which was a retreat center for ministers. At the end of those intense days of self- understanding, Dr. Marney gave each participant a photograph as they left to return home. It was a picture of a piece of sculpture. Two rough-hewn characters sat side by side. One had his head buried in his hands. The other figure had his arm around that person. Dr. Marney explained the meaning of that photograph. While he was pastor of the Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, a very troubled young teenager had fashioned this particular piece of sculpture. She called it, "Compassion." The task of each member of the congregation is to show compassion to one another. When we bear one another's burdens we really do fulfill the law of Christ. There is no higher law in the scriptures.