Leavers...

1 John 2:18-19 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
John has just finished warning us to not "love the world" - to not go after the world system that cons us into living selfishly, sinfully, and snobbishly.  He now addresses the issue of some who have left - the leavers - who had been a part of the church congregation, maybe even leaders in it, who had left for "bigger and better things".  They went out to be a part of the world.  Their actions proved not that they had arrived at some higher level, but that they had followed the spirit of antichrist: anti-service, anti-holiness, anti-humility. They now embraced everything opposite the character of Christ.  Those who remained were sad they had departed, but they were not to wonder if they were right in staying. We can expect these things, as sad as they are, as representative of the last hour and days of this world.  As we will see, we are to remain, to abide with Christ and His people. He is the Solid Rock, the one we are to trust and follow, not the world, the crowd, or the self-advertising.