The worst thing that can happen to a person according to Scripture is not death, or torture, or bereavement, or poverty. The worst thing that could happen to a person is to be enticed away from God. All other misfortunes affect you for a while, but spiritual apostasy affects you forever. Hence the worst thing that someone could do to another person is to entice them away from God. As you see here in Deuteronomy 13 nothing is dealt with so drastically as this. God wanted his people to spare no effort in preventing themselves from being led away from God to worship other gods. If the greatest commandment is to love God, then the greatest prohibition is to have no other gods, and indeed this is the first of the Ten Commandments. Let nothing and no one entice you away from God. Do not allow negative influences to poison your life. Guard your heart and mind and be prepared to take drastic measures if you have to. Be discerning about what you watch, what you read, who you allow to influence you, and so on. It is far more popular today to be permissive toward potentially negative influences, particularly with things like movies and television. We must, however, cultivate a healthy intolerance, and this may mean being stricter on ourselves. If you are in doubt, ask God to show you where negative influences are infiltrating your heart.
Ask God to show you the things that are negatively influencing your heart.
Read Deuteronomy 13
