Perf

Remember how the preacher in Ecclesiastes declared that everything was vanity? Well, I got thinking recently: what’s the point in spraying my body all over with perfume if after a few minutes I can’t perceive it anymore? Isn’t that a vain exercise?

It was a funny thought to me, especially after I reminded myself that one of the primary reasons for using perfumes was to smell good to others and to yourself. So if others can perceive it, maybe it’s not so useless after all.

I was also reminded of a scripture at that point:

“But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us spreads and makes evident everywhere the sweet fragrance of Him. For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] TO God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”

2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (AMP)

Everyone has a fragrance they give off.

Now when I first read this, my first impression was, “oh, the believer, as saved by Christ, is now able to live a good life, doing good works that give off a lovely ‘fragrance’ that draws men unto God.”

This was until I read it again, and then read the next verse:

“…to the latter (i.e. to the perishing) an aroma of death to death, but to the former (i.e. those who are being saved) a fragrance from life to life…” 

2 Corinthians 2:16 (NET: [words in brackets are mine])

My first impression took a big hit. Why would the believer smell awful to those perishing? Shouldn’t it be the other way round? Shouldn’t the fragrance of the believer draw people to God?

Then it dawned on me: this scripture isn’t about “lifestyle evangelism”—it’s about not conforming to the World’s system of doing things.

The primary purpose of the new creation is to please God (Revelations 4:11).

When a person is saved by believing in Jesus, that person becomes born again—he/she gets a new spirit. This new spirit is able to please God. This new spirit is able to walk before God and be perfect. This new life smells fragrant to God.

The fragrance of the believer—our motives, choices, and actions—is primarily meant to please God. What fragrance the new life would give to people is dependent on how they’ve chosen to align themselves to God.

Living to make people happy, or doing things the way the world does them might make you “smell nice” to them. But how do you smell to God?