The apostle Paul writes in His second letter to the church at Corinth (II Corinthians 2:14-16) about being the “aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…” and that God uses Christians to “spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere.”

It’s ultra important that as followers of Christ we realize that everywhere we go, everything we say and everything we do is a projection of Him. There is a part of this equation that’s our responsibility and part that’s God’s. For our part, the question is whether our projection of Jesus is “fragrant” or not-so-fragrant. In his first letter to Corinth, Paul had to address a rather stinky issue of open, unrepentant sin in the Corinthian church: a man was sleeping with is step-mother. Yikes!  Paul commanded the church not to  fellowship with a man who claimed to be a Christ-follower but lived such an odious life because this was damaging the church’s ability to project the truth of Christ to the world. When Christians allow sin to take root in our lives the odor is unmistakably bad; we may think it’s covered up by a smiling face on Sunday morning, but the only one we’re fooling is ourselves!

If you’re not a Christian and you’re reading this, you know what I’m talking about! It’s easy to understand why you would label such Christians as “hypocrites”, because you probably know enough about Jesus to notice when the lives of those claiming to be His followers aren’t quite up to, shall we say–snuff.  But, you’re not off the hook yet!  If in fact as a non-Christian you know the difference between how Christians ought to smell (loving, kind, generous, not greedy, compassionate, forgiving, etc.–based on your knowledge of Christ) and how some of them actually smell, then you are directly responsible to God for that knowledge.  Somehow, in your journey through life you’ve gotten enough of a whiff of what Paul calls “the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ” from the Bible through the witness of sincere Christians that you must now decide what you’re going to do with that knowledge. Here’s where God’s part comes in: if you desire to respond to your knowledge of Christ by placing your faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sin, then according to Paul you are “being saved”; God is at work calling and drawing you to Himself through the Holy Spirit, and when He calls, you WILL come, freely, joyfully. On the other hand, if you don’t desire to respond to your knowledge of Christ in faith, choosing instead to continue comparing yourself to Christians rather than to Christ, saying to yourself “I’m as good as or better than them”, then you’re among those whom Paul says “are perishing”; God is apparently not calling you–or at least not yet. It’s ultimately not the job of imperfect Christians to convince you of the truth and worth of Jesus Christ.  The gospel itself is powerful enough to persuade even the toughest critic of Christianity and Christians–Paul himself was just such a person before Jesus called him on the road to Damascus! According to Paul, even when the gospel is preached with impure (stinky) motives God can use it to call skeptics to become true believers. Look at what Paul says in Philippians 1:15-18:

    “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.“

Christians are not perfect people–not yet anyway!  This is why Paul intentionally uses the term “being saved” rather than “already saved”. Being saved from sin (hypocrisy included) is a process that continues in the lives of Christ-followers from the moment we first desire Christ to the moment we leave this world to be finally, perfectly united with Him. The Christ-follower’s task in the mean time is to give off the “aroma of Christ to God” among every single person we encounter whether fellow Christian or non-Christian, remembering that the ‘audience’ of our aroma, according to this passage in II Corinthians, is: God first, and Christians (to whom we are an aroma of life leading to life) and non-Christians (to whom we are an aroma of death leading to death) second.

If you’re a non-Christian, this post is not intended to anger you but to inform you of what the Bible plainly says to Christians. If you are skeptical about Christians and Christianity but willing to keep exploring Christ, I would challenge you to find a Bible and read both of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians in the New Testament. If you don’t own a Bible or can’t afford one, come to Bridge Church 4261 Manchester Rd. in Perry, OH this Sunday at 10 a.m. and I will give you one!