Smells. Aromas. We are bombarded by them every day. Some are pleasant and are enjoyable – I used to love waking up when I was a child on Saturdays because I could smell the aroma of bacon frying and knew there was a good breakfast awaiting me. There is nothing like the smell of freshly made coffee or freshly baked bread! But then there are smells that are revolting – dead animals, food that is off, or someone who hasn’t washed for days. Sometimes these can make us begin to gag. When writing to the Corinthian Christians Paul talked about their aroma.

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-17 NIV)

Paul likened our living as Christians and spreading the good news of Jesus as our aroma to those around us. We are to “spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere”. We need to be telling others about Jesus and all that he has done. We need to be showing in our lives that following him gives the best life anyone could have. This should be a pleasant and attractive aroma and cause interest in those around us when they see what we have in Jesus. Sadly this isn’t always the case.

Have you noticed that two people can smell the same thing – to one it is pleasant and to the other it is revolting. A friend of mine raised hogs on their farm. If you have ever walked around pigs and hogs you know that to most the aroma is revolting. But my friend told me that the smell didn’t bother him – it smelled like money. He was raising the hogs to provide an income for his family and it changed how he viewed their aroma.

That is the same when we talk to people about Jesus. To some it is a pleasing aroma. They realise they need what Jesus has to offer and are seeking it. It is pleasant because they desire to have the forgiveness he offers and without him they are lost. But to others, the message of Jesus smells like death. Why? Possibly because they realise what following Jesus would entail and they are not willing to change their lives. They learn enough to know that without him they will have eternal death. The same message, but two radically different reactions.

The background to what Paul wrote here was his looking for somewhere to go and teach people who had never heard about Jesus.

“Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.” (2 Corinthians 2:12-13)

While in Troas Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia telling him to come and help them. Paul was ready and willing to go and spread the aroma of the knowledge of Jesus in Macedonia and then into Greece. Sometimes people welcomed his message and became followers of Jesus. At other times people reacted to it violently with Paul being beaten and imprisoned. But what he taught didn’t depend on how they reacted – Paul continued to speak about the Messiah with sincerity, realising he had been sent by God to do this.

May we continue to spread the aroma of Jesus in all that we do.

View from Tarsus harbour area toward Macedonia. Photo by Jon Galloway.

Readings for next week: 1 Corinthians 14-16; 2 Corinthians 1-4