Ya' STINK!

Smelly? When someone calls you this, visions of rose bushes are not what one sees (or thinks of smelling) now, are they? The term smelly is not usually an endearing comment, but what we smell like matters, right? Most people use our sense of smell as a reference for evaluation. Not all smells are bad, but a bad smell is unmistakable, even if it is masked by a substantial amount of air freshener or cologne. Confession: sometimes in school, when showering seemed to be too much of an inconvenience, I often would spray extra cologne on…so? OK, I apologize to all those I must have offended, sorry.

Funny thing about smell is that what smells great to one person can smell really bad to another. I know that some smells are universally bad, but in the world of millions of smells, the beauty is in the nose of the smeller for the most part, right? But you know one fact that is indisputable? The smell has no say in “how” people smell it.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth, telling them that they have a smell. Look at these two verses:

2 Corinthians 2:15-16 (NIV)
¹⁵ For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
¹⁶ To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

God says that believers smell. We are supposed to be smelly?! Do you get this? We are what Christ smells like to others. We get the hands and feet analogy, but now we are to be the aroma too? Absolutely, and keeping with Jesus’ “the church is the body of Christ…” analogy, it should be easy to get there, because bodies smell both good and bad.

Do you find this a little too figurative for you, and almost kinda gross? I get that, but as Christians we are supposed to smell like Christ. This means that to those who are perishing, we are the stink of death, and horribly offensive. While to others who are being saved, we are the fragrance of life. To one person we might seem repulsive, while to another, pleasant. The key here is that we have no part in choosing how we smell. We have no choice in how people will respond to Jesus, and to the Gospel, if you try to share it.

I read a great quote in Vertical Church by James MacDonald: “Unless you are willing to be the aroma of death to those who are perishing, you will never be the aroma of life to those who are saved.”

So if I can only determine what I smell like, then how people smell me is not my problem. I already know I stink; now my focus is just to be as smelly of Christ that I can be, no more or less.

So waddaya say: smell much?

…just prayin’

In His grip, 

Pastor Pat