According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), most people don’t think about food safety until a food–related illness affects them or a family member. The CDC estimates that 76 million Americans get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illness or food poisoning as it is more commonly called. Preventing foodborne illness and death remains a major public health challenge.
While these numbers may seem staggering, there is yet a far more dangerous illness that affects God’s people today: spiritual food poisoning. Like foodborne illnesses which cause physical sickness and sometimes death, spiritual food poisoning leads to spiritual sickness and if not rectified will lead to eternal death. Let’s examine some causes and solutions for such poisoning.
Cross contamination
According to the CDC one of the leading causes of foodborne illness is cross contamination. Food becomes contaminated when cooked product and raw product, or vegetables and meat, are cut on the same surface without proper sanitation. This provides bacteria with an environment to grow. The Apostle Paul warns us about spiritual cross contamination in II Corinthians 6:14: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” Paul is telling converted Christians to be separate, different, spiritually clean. The Apostle John remarks that if we love the world by giving in to the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, then the love of the Father is not in us (I John 2:15–17). Since this world is corrupt, cross contaminating ourselves with this world once we have been made clean by God leads to spiritual sickness or even eternal death if it’s not remedied quickly.
Improper handling
Another cause of foodborne illness is improper handling of the food. If food is left out, not stored correctly or properly rotated, that’s a recipe for sickness. The same is true for our spiritual well–being. How are we handling the spiritual food God has given us? Are we neglecting God’s truth so that all types of bacteria and mold are beginning to grow on it? Paul admonishes us in II Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” We must properly handle the spiritual food of the Bible so that it can provide us with good, healthy nourishment for growth. How can we make sure we are doing that? From time to time we must do a thorough analysis of our time spent with God in prayer, Bible study, and fasting. These are the fundamentals of proper spiritual food–handling. Jesus gives us one example in Mark 1:35, where He rose early long before daylight and went to a solitary place to pray. The Bereans, in Acts 17:10–11, give us an example to search the scriptures daily. They were proving all things as we have been admonished to do. Christ gives us an example of fasting in Matthew 4:2 as a tool to battle against Satan. In Ephesians 6:12 we are told our battles are not against flesh and blood, but against spirit beings. If we are properly handling the spiritual food we have been given, we will be ready for these spiritual attacks.
Temperature danger zones
Those in the foodservice industry must be constantly aware of temperature danger zones. The rule is “hot foods hot and cold foods cold.” Dangers arise when the product falls in between. God also warns His people of falling into a spiritual danger zone: this Laodicean attitude has reached, in CDC language, pandemic proportions. To the Laodiceans it is written: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15–16). The same are the effects of physical food poisoning.
{{RelatedContent}}How can we become hot if we find ourselves slipping down the thermometer? Go back to the beginning. Go back to what excited you about the truth. We must remember the awesome future God has promised us. This world offers no future and no hope. You are promised first born rights in the family of God. Think about coming into the presence of God for the first time. What about returning this planet to the state God restored it to before He created man? Meditate on tending to the rest of the universe that God has created that is in a state of decay today. Imagine not being restricted to these aging physical bodies that slow us down! The cause of the problems—Satan—will be removed. Rekindle your excitement about teaching God’s truth to all those people in the millennium and those in the white throne judgement. What about witnessing true lasting peace and actually being a part of it? Anticipate our opportunity to witness the change in animal behavior—seeing the lamb and the lion dwelling together in peace. Imagine having the opportunity of meeting all those heroes of the Bible and sitting down to talk with them. Do these things no longer excite us? If we find they don’t, we must move our spiritual temperature up the thermometer and out of the danger zone.
We have before us an opportunity like no other time since the death of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong to fully understand the danger of cross contamination with this world. We must be feeding on God’s Word because our lives depend on it, while avoiding improper handling of that Word. Let’s be on fire and out of the danger zone that leads to eternal death.