Greco-Christian stream·The Imitation of Christ·Book III — On Inward Consolation·Chapter IV. How We Must Walk In Truth And Humility Before God
IV. Walking in truth and humility before God
On the right walking before God: in truth (without dissimulation) and in humility (without self-conceit). The two virtues that sustain every other; the inward truthfulness that does not need to be witnessed by men.
Source context
- Theme
- truth and humility as preconditions for authentic interior standing before God
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Benedictine Rule — degrees of humilityChapter 7 of the Rule of Benedict enumerates twelve degrees of humility as a structured ascent toward self-knowledge before God, paralleling the Imitation's insistence that true knowledge of self is prerequisite to knowledge of divine truth.
- Hesychast tradition — nepsisThe Hesychast practice of nepsis (watchful sobriety) treats interior self-examination and renunciation of self-inflation as the ground of theosis, showing cross-tradition congruence with the Imitation's posture of walking in truth before God.
- Sufi adabThe Sufi concept of adab — disciplined courtliness of soul before the Divine — structurally parallels the chapter's insistence that humility is not self-abasement but a precise, truth-ordered orientation of the soul toward its source.
Chapter IV. How We Must Walk In Truth And Humility Before God
HOW WE MUST WALK IN TRUTH AND HUMILITY BEFORE GOD
"My Son! walk before Me in truth, and in the simplicity of thy heart seek Me continually. He who walketh before Me in the truth shall be safe from evil assaults, and the truth shall deliver him from the wiles and slanders of the wicked. If the truth shall make thee free, thou shalt be free indeed, and shalt not care for the vain words of men."
2Lord, it is true as Thou sayest; let it, I pray Thee, be so with me; let Thy truth teach me, let it keep me and preserve me safe unto the end. Let it free me from all evil and inordinate affection, and I will walk before Thee in great freedom of heart.
3"I will teach thee," saith the Truth, "the things which are right and pleasing before Me. Think upon thy sins with great displeasure and sorrow, and never think thyself anything because of thy good works. Verily thou art a sinner, liable to many passions, yea, tied and bound with them. Of thyself thou always tendest unto nothing, thou wilt quickly fall, quickly be conquered, quickly disturbed, quickly undone. Thou hast nought whereof to glory, but many reasons why thou shouldest reckon thyself vile, for thou art far weaker than thou art able to comprehend.
4"Let, therefore, nothing which thou doest seem to thee great; let nothing be grand, nothing of value or beauty, nothing worthy of honour, nothing lofty, nothing praiseworthy or desirable, save what is eternal. Let the eternal truth please thee above all things, let thine own great vileness displease thee continually. Fear, denounce, flee nothing so much as thine own faults and sins, which ought to be more displeasing to thee than any loss whatsoever of goods. There are some who walk not sincerely before me, but being led by curiosity and pride, they desire to know my secret things and to understand the deep things of God, whilst they neglect themselves and their salvation. These often fall into great temptations and sins because of their pride and curiosity, for I am against them.
5"Fear thou the judgments of God, fear greatly the wrath of the Almighty. Shrink from debating upon the works of the Most High, but search narrowly thine own iniquities into what great sins thou hast fallen, and how many good things thou hast neglected. There are some who carry their devotion only in books, some in pictures, some in outward signs and figures; some have Me in their mouths, but little in their hearts. Others there are who, being enlightened in their understanding and purged in their affections, continually long after eternal things, hear of earthly things with unwillingness, obey the necessities of nature with sorrow. And these understand what the Spirit of truth speaketh in them; for He teacheth them to despise earthly things and to love heavenly; to neglect the world and to desire heaven all the day and night."