Have you ever wondered how people first learned what to eat and what not to eat? What possessed someone to see a mushroom and think it was worth eating? Who was the first person to die from eating a common conecap, deathcap or false morel? Why would someone try a different mushroom after watching someone keel over. Death by mushroom? Well, let’s try a different variety and hope for better results!
What about those berries? Who took the first handful of wild berries, thinking they were good but within seconds, started convulsing, vomiting, and dying?
Through the years, people have ingested things without knowing that they were poisoning themselves. For instance, people have eaten fish that was full of cadmium or mercury, depending on the waters that were fished. These heavy metals build up high levels of toxicity which the body cannot expel.
Before the dangers of lead were known, some cooking utensils were lined with lead. Boiling water or juice in the pots resulted in the lead getting into the food or drink. In children, lead poisoning can affect mental and physical development. In adults, it can cause headaches, cramps, weakness, loss of sensation, and a variety of other problems.
“The thick green leaves of rhubarb were once eaten but they are chock-full of toxic oxalic acid and therefore not meant for ingestion. Unfortunately, this fact was not well known a century ago, as rhubarb leaves were recommended as a source of vegetation during the food shortages of World War I.
“Consumed in small but regular doses, the leaves inhibit the beneficial effects of calcium
and trigger the buildup of calcium oxalate, leading to kidney stones. While a human would normally have to eat something like 6 pounds of the stuff to experience the more acute effects (including vomiting, diarrhea, and kidney failure), there was at least one reported case of oxalic acid poisoning during the rhubarb leaf’s brief run as a lettuce substitute.”1
We can never be too careful when eating in the wild or eating things we know nothing about. We can’t go by what others are eating. Some poisons take time to build in a system and the person happily munching away on something could be causing themselves great harm.
The same is true spiritually. 2 Peter 2:1-3 warns, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2) And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (3) And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
Spiritual poison is out there and easily found by the unsuspecting and undiscerning. Most of the poison is in miniscule amounts, dribbled or injected in small doses on otherwise good food. Haven’t you ever heard someone describe an author or preacher with these words? 95% of what they say is really good! Maybe so but it’s the 5% that is concerning! The 95% dulls our ability to detect the 5% and it’s not long before someone has gotten sucked in, only to find that that even the 95% wasn’t good. But the poison has ruined them, making them incapable of really discerning the good from the bad.
The Berean Christians were applauded by Paul for their discernment concerning the teaching of God’s Word. Acts 17:11 says, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Even though it was the Apostle Paul 
talking to them, they didn’t just swallow his words with naïve gullibility. Received them, yes. But, then, they searched the Scriptures to PROVE the authenticity of what was being said. The Bible was their litmus test for accuracy.
Today, let’s be very careful about what we ingest, both physically and spiritually. Take John’s instructions to heart as found in 1 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.”
1https://historyfacts.com/world-history/article/toxic-foods-people-used-to-eat/
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