I John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”
John now exhorts the Children of God to be cautiously vigilant “because many false prophets are gone out into the world”. These “false prophets” herald humanistic teachings to lead the people away after themselves instead of directing them to the Lord. Their destructive teachings are like those who make their poisonous drugs to look like candy; so as to entice and draw away and subjugate the people. The essential and consistent message of a true prophet/preacher is to “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29); they take no glory unto themselves. Even in our day, “false prophets” are highly effective deceivers, they are “false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). Then, there is the “hireling” which “seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.” (John 10:12-13). To be cautiously vigilant is to read and learn the Word of God, to teach it to our Children, to conform our lives to it, and to attend and be a part of the Church where it is preached and taught. As we learn the Word of God, we learn to recognize the “false prophets” and their highly destructive teachings.