#31 A True Spiritual Guide

From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich

1st John 2 verse 26

"These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you."

(Namely verses 18 through 19)

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that anti-christ shall come, even now are there many anti-christs; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

Seduction is the opposite of guidance. A true spiritual guide first leads the souls into the Word of Truth, Christ, and then further on therein unto the end, unto eternal blessedness. Christ is the Way of Life from the beginning to end, and faithful souls obey their guides, and another, whose voice they do not know, they will not follow but will flee from him as from seducers. (John 10) An upright guide gathers his sheep to the (only) real Shepherd, Christ, and under His staff they all become one, like-minded, for all have in them the same law of the Spirit and one aim; they are united in the highest of interests, the kingdom of God and eternal blessedness; therefore the vile, human, earthly interests are not able to separate them.