1st John 4:1-6 TEST THE TEACHING Compassionate concern for the spiritual health and safety of the young in Christ and those who are letting their "light so shine before men," marks those believers who have experienced God with them in their lives. They know that opposition will come from many sources. Outward persecution is hard to bear, but at least we can see where it is coming from and avoid it or stand against it. Eloquent speakers who have "studied the Bible" and who are known as "Christian scholars" attract people to their "new revelations" or their "deeper knowledge" of the Bible. At the time of John's writing the teaching of Plato, Cerinthius and others was popular in the world of religion and learning. It was to those who were being influenced by the teaching of those people that John was addressing his warning to "try the spirits."
Most of those who were alive when our Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, and had heard and seen His ministry, had died by the time John wrote this epistle. Second and third generation believers seem to have more doubts about what they have been taught because they have been used to biblical teaching all their lives. Those things first understood by those who came from moral darkness as well as spiritual darkness, brought the "light of life" into the darkness of their lives. They had lived in, and loved sin. The new birth and new nature changed them and their lives completely. Those who have been raised as Christians, and have lived under the influence of those who are "the light of the world," only realize their sinfulness and sinful nature when they are conscious of the holiness of God. When they compare themselves with those who have never heard or understood the Gospel, they seem like they are already children of God. They look like Christians, act like Christians, do Christian things and attend Christian churches - but have never been born again by the Spirit and word of God.