Imitating our Master

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis is one of those bona fide classics that every Christian can profit from, even if you don't agree with everything in it. There are things here that should be daily reminders for pilgrims on the way. I've been dipping into it again. Here are some snippets. . .

Those who fully understand Christ's words must labor to make their lives conform to His.

Knowledge is a natural desire in all people. But knowledge for its own sake is useless unless you fear God. An unlearned peasant, whose contentment is the service of God, is far better than the learned and the clever, whose pride in their knowledge leads them to neglect their souls while fixing their attention on the stars.

Nothing is so beneficial as a true knowledge of ourselves, which produces a wholesome self-contempt.

Always keep in mind that all are frail, but none so frail as yourself.

It is good that everything is not always to our liking; for adversity makes people look into their hearts in order to realize that they are exiles and must not put their hopes in any worldly thing.

The Imitation of Christ is clearly a book by a man who was saturated in scripture and who had a keen sense of the effects of sin. If you've never read it I hope you'll pick it up.


Quotes from pgs. 15, 16, 17, 18 & 30 of this edition