4:1-6 How do believers try the spirits to see if they are of God?
4:1-6 How do believers try the spirits to see if they are of God?
(cp also 2Jn 7-11). Believers must test the spirit of every teaching in the light of scripture.
Any teaching that does not conform to scripture must be rejected out of hand, and while John is warning believers specifically in 1Jn 4:1-6 and 2Jn 7-11 to test the spirit of every teaching outside the church, believers must by the same principle, test every teaching within the church also (cp 1Th 5:21).
God does not want believers to passively accept every teaching in the church at face value. They must test everything by scripture regardless of who teaches it (cp Ac 17:10-11). Paul and Silas' teaching here was acceptable to the Bereans only because it conformed to scripture.
Every believer is to be like the Bereans, searching the scriptures to see if what they are being taught is correct. Peter teaches the same thing (cp 2Pe 1:16-21). Although Peter was an eyewitness to Jesus' transfiguration, and heard the voice of God Himself, he teaches here that the testimony of scripture is an even surer confirmation of God's truth about Jesus than his own eyewitness account.
There are false teachers within the church just as there is without, and there are many scriptures warning against them. Scriptures teach that they may outwardly appear to be genuine spiritual leaders, but inwardly they are "ravening wolves, full of dead men's bones, given over to extortion and excess, and full of hypocrisy and iniquity" (cp Mt 7:15-23; 13:25-30; Ac 20:29-30; 2Cor 11:12-15; Tit 1:10-14; 2Pe 2:1-3; Jude 4; Rev 2:20).
False teachers may not always be immediately recognizable but their doctrine will betray them to believers who test their teachings against the pure word of God. (See also comments on Ac 17:11, 1Th5:21, 2Pe 1:16-19).