Investigating the Bible: Passing the smell test

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

Recently I was in line at a store as the man in front of me purchased three packs of cigarettes. The smell of tobacco was strong in his clothing. Oddly, for me that surfaced pleasant memories of my father, who smoked from age 14 to his death at 92. He acquired the habit in the post-World War II time when magazines carried advertisements for cigarettes like the one that showed a smiling surgeon general, with this caption: “I smoke them because they are pure and natural goodness.”

Rudyard Kipling wrote: “Smells are surer than sights and sounds to make the heart strings crack.” The apostle Paul used fragrances to illustrate his ministry and remind believers of their responsibility.

“For we are an 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.” (II Corinthians 2:15-16, English Standard Version used throughout). To meet the apostle Paul was to know immediately that Jesus Christ was central in his life. “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). On Paul’s first missionary journey, he and Barnabas came to Cyprus. The leader of the city summoned Paul and was impressed with his words of God. A magician, named Elymas, tried to turn the city leader away from belief. Paul confronted the magician, “…and said, ‘You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.’ Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.” (Acts 13:10-11). Paul was an aroma of life to the city leader, who believed. To the magician, Paul was the odor of death and darkness.

Such dramatic outcomes to the gospel message and its rejection rarely happened. Paul himself was often the victim of those who opposed his gospel. He wrote, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.” (II Corinthians 11:24-25).

Paul challenged believers in Corinth: “I urge you then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.” (I Corinthians 4:16-17). He later explained how believers can cast off a pleasing fragrance of Christ. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

We may not be the best judge of the fragrance of our own behavior. As a youth, I earned money delivering papers to homes on a rural route in the Midwest. Part of the job in those days was collecting subscription money from customers by going door to door. During winter months, when I knocked on the door and the warm house was opened, strong smells poured out. Some were wonderful, if they were cooking bacon and eggs, or baking cookies, and some were unpleasant human odors or wet dog smells. However, to the occupants of each home, their houses had no smell. They were accustomed to the fragrances or odors. Likewise, we are easily desensitized to our impact on others. Family and respected friends can help us smell our own behavior. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (II Corinthians 13:5).

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).