"25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Ephesians 4:25-32
As a postscript to what was said in the previous Note we add some comments by Dr Graham Leonard, formerly Bishop of London, from a newspaper article a few years ago in which he discussed 'Conscience, Loyalty and Freedom' (those who retain past copies of the Record will find the Minister's Letter on this subject in the May 1990 issue). The following excerpt is taken from his observations about Freedom:
'On freedom, the first point which needs to be made is that freedom for anyone means of necessity some restriction on all. Freedom for all to do whatever they want means anarchy, not freedom.
'It should be the aim of a liberal democracy - and I use the word liberal in the old-fashioned sense - to provide the maximum liberty of conscience with the minimum of restraint. But this can only be provided against the background of a moral consensus in which personal responsibility is seen as the necessary concomitant of freedom, and in which certain common values are accepted, and particularly in the nature of freedom itself. Such a consensus is lacking today.'
Food for thought indeed!