The aroma of Christ ...

It helps me to know where a writer is coming from -- a bit of the writer's history. Such is true for Paul's letters in the New Testament as well. Before and after coming to Jesus he was a religious leader. Before Jesus he focused more on his good works in response to the love of God. And, after coming to Jesus, he focused more on the love of God that motivated his good works. (For more on this read Philippians 3).

That God-love motivation that changed Paul's focus was God's free gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. It was free -- Paul did not have to do one thing for it. But it was not cheap -- it cost Jesus his life.

I have a hunch Paul had this in mind when he wrote 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. The reason I believe that are a couple of words Paul uses in these verses that could have been used to describe animal or plant sacrifices burned before God: "fragrance" and "aroma". Paul confidently states that 'the fragrance comes form knowing Christ' and that "we (the community of faith) are the aroma of Christ to God"!

To imagine that I am the aroma of Christ! To imagine that the Church is the aroma of Christ!

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.