In our post-modern world, the lesson of the hypocrite seeking to remove the speck from their neighbour’s eye before removing the log from their own has at times been taken too far and too literally. We are often confronted with a minimalist notion that nobody can be corrected or criticised because one person’s opinion is just as good as the next person’s. In this view, there is no room for universal truths; no room for authority; no room for an over-arching view of the world or a meta-narrative – an underlying ‘big picture’ story for life.

On the surface, the idea that one person’s opinion is as valid as any other’s seems very democratic and sociable. However, it is fundamentally not true. Someone who has spent a lifetime studying and practising in a particular field of endeavour cannot be lightly dismissed as ‘that’s just your opinion’. Yet, all too often, such learned knowledge and experience is given the same weight as ill-informed and sometimes mischievous opinion – frequently in the name of ‘balanced’ discussion.

‘The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good.’ What makes a person good? Is it that they have had good things happen in their life? There are plenty of people who have had good things in their life but they remain cynical and spiteful people. Similarly there are plenty who have had the hardest of circumstances yet goodness constantly flows from them. It’s not the external influences but what we do with them that determines whether we are nurturing ‘good treasure’ or harbouring ‘evil treasure’. This is not just sugary sweetness but a deliberate decision to be a person of hope.