30 August 2023
Some people by the word freedom understand the ability to do whatever
one wants … People who have the more allowed themselves to come into slavery to
sins, passions, and defilements more often than others appear as zealots of
external freedom, wanting to broaden the laws as much as possible. But such a
man uses external freedom only to more severely burden himself with inner
slavery. True freedom is the active ability of a man who is not enslaved to
sin, who is not pricked by a condemning conscience, to choose the better in the
light of God’s truth, and to bring it into actuality with the help of the
gracious power of God. This is the freedom of which neither heaven nor earth is
restricted.
Saint Philaret of Moscow
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