Know Your Wasps From Your Bees!

 (I was recently asked to write the message that goes on the front page of our bi-monthly chapel newsletter so looked back through some of my old journals for inspiration. I came across this which I wrote in pre-blog days, so a good 14 years ago and thought it worth resurrecting).

I hate to kill any living creature, which might seem strange as I am a professional horticulturalist. To squash a slug or snail, even without intention, sends a shudder through me. But, today, on purpose, I killed a wasp. It was one of those huge creatures that had been hibernating all winter, emerging with the sole purpose of multiplying its own kind over the summer. As I did the cruel deed (with a rather satisfying crunch) that often-expressed question came to mind. Why did God make wasps? What purpose do they have? Even the slugs, snails and aphids are more useful as the birds just love to gobble them up, so forming part of the food chain.

A close relation of the wasp is the bee. These busy little creatures work so hard, collecting pollen for honey and pollinating all our fruiting plants and flowers you can forgive them the sting in their tail. Even that is only ever used as a defence whereas the vicious old wasp will swoop on you and plunge its deadly poison into you for no reason at all except inflict pain. Do not ever get the two confused.

The wasp comes in causing children, women and, yes, men, to run screaming away flapping their arms in terror and forgetting everything they have been told to do. A pebble dropped in still water produces ripples going further and further out, so the wasp comes in causing mayhem and carnage. If one suddenly arrives through an open car window it could be the cause of a multiple car pile up on the motorway as the driver loses concentration in an attempt to ward it off. In just the same way false teachers come among us and stir up trouble with their lies and deception. A half-truth, a lie or slight deviation from the truth if told in the church can cause equal damage, dividing the fellowship with untold hurt.

The point of all this is that you should know your wasps from your bees in the same way you should know deception from the truth. And to do that you need to set aside time to study the word of God, be in prayer asking for guidance, and forming a close relationship with Jesus. As you get to know Him better and better you will be able to decern when something said is right or not. In the same way you will quickly learn the difference between a wasp and a bee if you look closely at them and see what fruit they produce. One will come at you, buzzing angrily, intent on giving you a vicious sting whilst the other gently hums as it floats from flower to flower making sweet honey and a productive garden. Choose wisely which one to associate with!

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2Peter 2:1