#36 Spiritual self-reliance
From Meditations on the Epistles of John, by Samuel Froehlich
I John 2:26 ff.
These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
In reference to the besetting lying-spirits, the seducers and false brethren and disguised servants of Satan (II Corinthians 11; Galatians 2), the apostle wished it to be made known to his young brethren that they were self-reliant and independent so that they, by means of the unction, might be in a position to prove all teachers and teachings and discern the truth and the lie, so as not to be deceived and led astray. He who can judge all teachers stands above them in this respect and consequently is independent of the judgment of others in reference to the truth, and it must be so with all the anointed or they would be at the mercy of every seducer and lying-spirit (Romans 16).
Yet the believers, by reason of this spiritual self-reliance, are still not in the same degree as independent from the teaching of the truth itself as it is revealed by the older, experienced servants of Christ through the Holy Ghost. Only the fathers in Christ are independent in this respect also, but all the younger ones shall be desirous of the sincere milk of the truth (I Peter 2) and continue stedfastly in the instruction and advice of the leaders (Acts 2), so that they, through the same, may increase in the true wisdom and knowledge of God. It is the same in this respect as with children: as long as the child is in the womb of the mother, its life is wholly bound with that of the mother and is dependent (absolutely) upon her, but when it is born, it, at that state, has received a separate life, yet it is not so independent that it could sustain itself, but must even then receive its nourishment from the mother that it might live.
As necessary as self-reliance may ever be in reference to the erring spirits, to slash them to pieces with the Sword of the Spirit (the Word of God), just as destructive also is the high-minded conceit, self-knowledge and self-sufficiency of so many beginners and novices who have been puffed up by the devil against the truth and imagine that they need learn nothing more. They are the first to become seducers of others. Paul warns us against this old and self-conceited way (Romans 12; I Corinthians 8, etc.).
... if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
Such independence is neither right nor good, for eccentricity, the lying-spirit, is behind it and such inexperienced ones imperceptibly depart from the truth. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." For, as we are indebted and obligated to accept the whole truth as the counsel of God unto our salvation, so must we also avoid every lie if we are to be saved. It is not for us to be concerned about adding to or taking away from the truth at discretion.
The self-reliance and independence of which John speaks is therefore not absolute or unconditional, but conditional and relative, and we must guard ourselves just as much from our own mind as from the strange lying-spirits so as not to be deceived, for we can never finish learning the truth and wisdom of God, and we must keep our heart pure from sin in order that the Holy Ghost may dwell and abide in us, guide us into all truth and keep us from seduction.