"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness." (2 Tim. 2:15-16) "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby..." (1 Pet. 2:2)

A story is told of a man who, resisting the cost of oats he fed his mule, decided to gradually substitute sawdust in its diet. Everything went fine for a while, but by the time the mule was satisfied with sawdust, he died.

The same is true spiritually. The changeover from truth to error is sometimes a slow process, and the people don't always know the difference. But, before they know it, they are dead. (From 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, p. 23)