2 Corinthians 2:14-15
My dad worked just south of downtown San Diego. I remember riding in the car with my mom to bring him something at work. When we got out of the car to see him, I was overwhelmed by an amazing scent. Fresh bread was baking at the nearby Wonder Bread factory, and the aroma filled the air. The neighborhood wasn’t the nicest or the safest, but the smell of fresh bread was incredible.
Years later, as a young adult, I was driving North from my then-home in Denver, CO, to visit the Black Hills of South Dakota. On Interstate Highway 25 between Loveland and Greeley, there was a different kind of smell: cattle. For several miles and too many minutes, even with the windows rolled up, the stink of cow manure overwhelmed. I couldn’t imagine how people lived in those towns.
The sense of smell might be the least used or appreciated human sense, but it makes strong impressions and contrasts the pleasant with the unpleasant. The Apostle Paul describes the contrast of the aroma of Christ:
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:14-17)
Believers have a smell in the world. They spread “the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” It is fascinating that the aroma of Christ doesn’t change; it is not two smells, like fresh bread and cow manure. It is one smell, but people receive it differently. Like someone smelling fresh bread and saying, “I hate that,” or someone smelling cow manure and saying, “I love it!”
How can believers carry the fragrant aroma of Christ everywhere they go? According to Paul’s words, the fragrance comes from the knowledge of Christ. Believers, commissioned by God, speak in Christ. The fresh air of renewal spreads through faithful presence in the lives of the people God put around us. Wherever followers of Jesus go, they carry His fragrance — the beauty of grace in a world that often smells like decay. Renewal happens as the scent of Jesus’ love lingers in ordinary places: offices, schools, homes, and neighborhoods.
Dr. John Riley
Junior High Pastor