2 Corinthians 2:15-16: “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?”
Did you ever think of yourself, as a Christian, that you have “the aroma of Christ” about you to other Christians and to those that have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior? I have just returned from having my annual major sales team meeting this past week, and I wanted to plant this verse in my mind to take with me for these two days away from home. I wanted to remind myself that it is not so much in what I do but in my manner of doing my job.
My fragrant fragrance is lavender. When I buy a candle, it has typically been the fragrance of lavender. It is soothing, relaxing, inspiring, and has calming effects for me when I burn a lavender candle. I also have a good size lavender plant growing in my front yard. When I trimmed it last week, I could smell the lavender scent coming from the essential oils captured in the flowers and in the stems from the plant. That natural fragrance makes me smile.
Incense was commonly used back in Bible times in the Roman triumphal parades. Priests would walk beside the procession, swinging their incense pots to create a sweet aroma of victory as the procession headed to the arena where the captives were made to be entertainment to the crowds, in being made to do battle against wild beasts. Paul used this image, from the Roman world, in picturing aroma and fragrance is like the knowledge of God, which, when the triumphal show passed by, people could smell the scent of the incense – the fragrance. David Guzak’s commentary quoted F.B. Meyer by saying, “There is nothing we remember more strongly than pleasant smells, except perhaps unpleasant smells. Thus the apostle wished that his life might be a sweet perfume, floating on the air, reminding me, and above all reminding God, of Christ. . . . It is the breath and fragrance of a life hidden with Christ in God, and deriving its aroma from fellowship with Him. Wrap the habits of your soul in the sweet lavender of your Lord’s character.”
Now when I smell the fragrance of lavender, it will have more meaning for me –representing eternal seeds planted and watered for a fragrance of life over death (our victory march) which will produce a lasting aroma of a life hidden in Christ. But Satan and his enemy forces are headed to the dreadful smell of death and doom, as Rev. 20:10 states, to the lake of fire.
We must be a living sermon before others, whetting their appetites, as we strive to be leading like Jesus, with the exquisite fragrance and aroma of Christ spreading everywhere.
Listen to Danny Gokey’s – Give Me Jesus (Live) YouTube video.