THE AROMA OF CHRIST
2 Corinthians 2
“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.”
It is a notion that must surely jar us to attention: we are the aroma of Christ in God’s eyes, that may bring life to some and death to others. This is not about evangelism in the way we usually understand it—sharing the Gospel—where those whom we neglect to share the Gospel with would not be saved. It is about those who respond to who we are and who we represent and those who reject us.
Obviously we want to be agents of life rather than death.
Paul, in the way he dealt with the problems involving certain individuals in the Corinthian church who were (likely) slandering him and belittling his ministry, influencing a section of the church to reject him, sought to be an agent of life, expressing love and forgiveness and counselling the larger church to follow his example.
Self-sacrifice, forgiveness, comfort, love, seeking to build rather than destroy, seeking to unite rather than consolidate his own empire, seeking to advance God’s interests rather than indulge in Satan’s schemes (that satisfy carnal desires)—we see how Paul is shaped by these in the choices he made and the humility he lived by.
If our aroma is pleasing to God but rejected by those around us, then they are those who are perishing. But surely we do not want to be such people who provoke others to reject Christ because of our hypocrisy, our selfishness and our unbridled desire to tear down those who dare hurt us or disagree with us, whose life denies the truth we share.
Who is equal to such a task? Paul asks. No one. And that is why we must constantly be in prayer for ourselves, both for forgiveness and also for grace.
“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.”