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How do you smell? (2 Corinthians 2:12-17)
Dave Sunman, 28 May 2017
Part of the Defending the Faith series, Sunday Evening service
Everywhere that Christians go, especially where we are known as disciples of Jesus Christ, we take the fragrance of the knowledge of him. However, smells are strange things. There are smells that we associate with good or bad memories and so become something positive or negative to us when others might react in a very different way. In this passage, Paul uses the picture of the Triumphal Processions of the Roman Empire (with all the incense that would be burned) to show how the fragrance of Jesus may be interpreted differently by different people. There are also some pointers about how our smell can be most effective.
| Earlier: | Same day: | Later: |
|---|---|---|
| « Restitution not Retribution | Living in Freedom | Don't lose your head! » |
2 Corinthians 2:12–17 (Listen)
12 When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
14 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. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 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.
(ESV)