Subtle Poisoning
For Women By Women
Submitted by Trish Williams
March 28, 2025
1Co 15:33-34 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
Fifty-five years ago, a mother secretly poisoned her son over a period of several years. At first, she mixed minute amounts in his food and over time gradually increased the amount of poison. In the beginning there was no outward evidence of the poisoning. However, as the years passed, the young man became sickly and often missed school.
Eventually, the sickness became more severe, until one day he succumbed.
Today, professing believers are also being poisoned in similar manner. The devil has many ways of adding poison to our daily spiritual diet. For instance, over 450 versions of the Bible—with volumes of books and movies being produced—all based upon those perversions, which are filled with poison for the soul.
Perhaps more alarming are the powerful, cutesy, social media postings that are increasingly becoming the sole spiritual food for believers. A quick read of a social media, eye-appealing box becomes the spiritual read and claim for the day—instead of feasting on the Bible, the pure source of strength and food for the soul. Psalm 119:140a Thy word is very pure.
But it doesn’t stop there. A simple touch of the screen rapidly contaminates hundreds of other souls with the devil’s poison, as it is shared over and over. Many such postings are filled with heresy, psychology, worldly counsel, and self-empowerment thoughts. If they were tested by the Word of Truth, the poisoning would decrease, and the believer strengthened.
Like the young man, at first there may be few or no outward signs of this spiritual poisoning. Yet, as time passes, visible evidence of spiritual illness becomes quite noticeable. The soul is anemic, weak, and struggles to deal with daily life. What should be a steady walk of faith is now characterized by great emotional swings, character changes, and spiritual ups and downs.
James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Why? Because the soul has been poisoned by that which appealed to and satisfied the flesh. The flesh develops an appetite, sometimes an addiction, for this subtly poisonous diet of social postings. Sooner rather than later, the believer will seldom seek or crave the pure Word of truth anymore. It is a sharp, surgical instrument which cuts away at our carnalities. It can deliver a pain the flesh strives to avoid. (Heb 4:12)
Consider – Since we would not knowingly submit ourselves to physical poisoning, why would we knowingly commit spiritual poisoning?
