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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 3 · On Inward Consolation
Chapter 4Imit.3.4

Quod in humilitate et veritate coram Deo est conversandum.

Walking in Truth Before God

The disciple is called to walk before God in truth and simplicity, trusting that divine truth will guard, purify, and free the heart from disordered affections.

Son, walk before me in truth, with a simple heart, and seek me always. Whoever walks before me in truth will be protected from vain attacks, and truth will free them from the seductions and slander of the wicked.1 If truth has set you free, you will truly be free, and you won't care about the empty words of men.2 Lord, what you say is true. I ask that it be so with me.3 Let your truth itself teach me, guard me, and preserve me to a saving end; let it free me from every evil and disordered affection, and I will walk with you in great freedom of heart.4

The Humble Knowledge of Self

God teaches the humble to see themselves truly—as sinners prone to weakness and passion—so they may never boast but remain grounded in self-knowledge.

"I will teach you," says the Truth, "what is right and pleasing before me." Consider your sins with deep displeasure, keep them in mind, and never think yourself to be anything on account of your good works.5 Truly you are a sinner, subject to many passions, and entangled in them. From yourself you always tend toward nothing; you fall quickly, grow troubled quickly, come apart quickly.6 You have nothing you can boast of.✦ But you have many reasons to count yourself as nothing, because you are far weaker than you can comprehend.7

Eternal Truth Over Earthly Vanity

Only what is eternal is truly praiseworthy; therefore, one must fear God’s judgment, flee vice, and avoid proud curiosity about divine mysteries.

So don't let anything you do seem great to you. Nothing is grand, nothing precious and admirable, nothing appears worthy by reputation, nothing lofty, nothing truly praiseworthy and desirable — unless it is eternal. Let eternal truth please you above all things; let your own deep vileness displease you above all things. Fear and flee nothing so much as your own vices and sins, which ought to displease you more than any loss of things. There are those who don't walk sincerely before me, but led by a certain curiosity and arrogance they want to know my secrets and understand the deep things of God, while neglecting themselves and their own salvation. These often fall into great temptations and sins on account of their own boasting, pride, and curiosity — with me opposing them. Fear the judgments of God; tremble at the wrath of the Almighty.

True Devotion: From Outward Forms to Inward Fire

Authentic devotion moves beyond books, images, and lip-service to an inward transformation by the Spirit of truth, who teaches the soul to despise earth and desire heaven.

But don't go prying into the works of the Most High; instead, examine your own sins closely—how many ways you've fallen short, and how many good things you've neglected. Some carry their devotion only in books, some in images, and some in outward signs and figures. Some have me on their lips, but barely at all in their hearts. There are others who, enlightened in understanding and purified in affection, always long for eternal things. They hear of earthly matters with heaviness, serve the demands of nature with grief, and these are the ones who sense what the Spirit of truth speaks within them.8 Because that Spirit teaches them to despise earthly things and to love heavenly things, to neglect the world, and to desire heaven all day and night.

Read the original Latin

Fili, ambula coram me in veritate et in simplicitate cordis tui quære me semper. Qui ambulat coram me in veritate, tutabitur ab incursibus vanis et veritas liberabit eum a seductoribus et detractionibus iniquorum. Si veritas te liberaverit, vere liber eris et non curabis de vanis hominum verbis. Domine verum est ut dicis, ita quæso mecum fiat. Veritas tua ipsa me doceat, ipsa me custodiat, et usque ad salutarem finem me conservet; ipsa me liberet ab omni affectione mala et inordinata et ambulabo tecum in magna cordis libertate.

Ego te docebo, ait Veritas, quæ recta sunt et placita coram me. Cogita peccata tua cum displicentia magna et memorare, et nunquam reputes te aliquid esse propter opera bona. Revera peccator es, et multis passionibus obnoxius, et implicatus. Ex te semper ad nihil tendis, cito laberis, cito turbaris, cito dissolveris. Non habes quidquam, unde possis gloriari. Sed multa habes unde te debes vilificare, quia multo infirmior es quam vales comprehendere.

Nihil ergo tibi magnum videatur ex omnibus, quæ agis. Nihil grande, nihil prætiosum et admirabile, nil reputatione appareat dignum, nil altum, nil vere laudabile, et desiderabile, nisi quod æternum. Placeat tibi super omnia æterna veritas, displiceat tibi super omnia vilitas maxima tua. Nil sic temeas et fugias, sicut vitia, et peccata tua, quæ magis displicere debent, quam quælibet rerum damna. Quidam non sincere coram me ambulant, sed quadam curiositate et arrogantia ducti volunt secreta mea scire, et alta Dei intelligere, se et suam salutem negligentes. Hi sæpe in magnas tentationes, et peccata, propter suam jactantiam, superbiam et curiositatem, labuntur me eis adversante. Time judicia Dei, expavesce iram Omnipotentis.

Noli autem discutere opera Altissimi, sed tuas iniquitates perscrutare, in quantis dereliquisti, et quam multa bona neglexisti. Quidam portant solum suam devotionem in libris, quidam in imaginibus; quidam autem in signis exterioribus et figuris. Quidam habent me in ore, sed modicum in corde. Sunt alii qui intellectu illuminati et affectu purgati ad æterna semper anhelant, de terrenis graviter audiunt, necessitatibus naturæ dolenter inserviunt, et hi sentiunt, quid veritatis spiritus loquitur in eis. Quia docet eos terrena despicere, et amare cælestia, mundum negligere, et cælum tota die et nocte desiderare.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Veritas functions both as divine attribute and as Christ himself (cf. John 14:6); the personification of truth as liberator is preserved.
  2. 2 ↩Strong echo of John 8:32 (Si vos manseritis in sermone meo... veritas liberabit vos) and John 8:36 (Si ergo vos Filius liberaverit, vere liberi eritis). Status: candidate, pending Moses resolution.
  3. 3 ↩ut dicis is rendered as a complementizer clause ('what you say') rather than a result clause ('so that you say'), following the gloss note on ambiguity. The prayerful response context favors the complementizer reading: the disciple affirms the truth of Christ's words and petitions for their fulfillment.
  4. 4 ↩affectione mala et inordinata: 'affection' here carries the sense of disordered attachment or inclination, not mere emotion. The pairing with inordinata confirms the negative, disordered sense.
  5. 5 ↩cum here rendered as 'with' (accompanying circumstance) rather than temporal 'when'; the sense is 'consider your sins accompanied by great displeasure.'
  6. 6 ↩dissolveris rendered 'come apart' to capture the sense of spiritual dissolution without archaic diction.
  7. 7 ↩vilificare rendered 'count yourself as nothing' to convey the force of making oneself vile/contemptible without archaic phrasing.
  8. 8 ↩affectu purgati — 'purified in affection' renders the interior cleansing of disordered desire, not merely emotional refinement.