What do you smell like?
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NIV)
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
A better way of saying smell would be to use the word fragrance or aroma. Paul's challenge to us is this: What aroma or fragrance is coming from our lives as we live them out daily?
God's plan was that our lives would "spread everywhere the fragrance of Him". Is that what your life smells like today? When people get a whiff of your life do they smell the scent of grace and the aroma of someone who knows Jesus?
This is a good challenge for each of us to consider and, as with many things, there is a natural and a spiritual reality to smells and people. We can compare them both to make a point.
All of us have experienced or been exposed to, at one time or another, a person passing us with a nice scent – maybe an expensive perfume or after shave. It's also very likely you have experienced the smell of someone passing near to you with bad BO (body odour). Have you ever sat in the same room or enclosed place with someone who removes their shoes and they have really unpleasantly cheesy smelling feet? Yep, we have all experienced both.
Naturally, our lives can release a smell or a fragrance that is either pleasing or not-so-pleasing to the senses of others, and spiritually this is a reality too. What does your Christianity smell of today. Smells are very interesting things. They can attract people or repel them depending on what type they are. When people encounter you do they smell the sweet perfume of knowing Jesus or the odour of religion, with all its various scents of law and legalism – or worse, the pungent stench of hypocrisy?
May our lives today release wherever we go that sweet aroma of Christ in us. May that smell attract people to follow Him.
Bless you. Be smelly in the right way!
Andy
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