But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the 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. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17

What sort of odor does love have? If we love one another well with the Word and we faithfully love our neighbors, particularly our unbelieving neighbors,  how would they describe the smell of such love? This is a fascinating metaphor taken up by Paul in his second letter to the church in Corinth. It is a fascinating metaphor because it doesn’t get stuck on the main question all of us tend to ask, namely, what would love look like. Such a question can get preoccupied with the particulars of action - actions that will no doubt look very different in different circumstances. Instead, Paul is asking a question about the impression our love for others will leave on those around us. His answer is disturbing and emboldening as we consider the question of how to love our city well as a church. 

Triumphal Procession 

Paul here describes the ministry of God’s people in a city as a triumphal procession marching through the city, led by Christ. Triumphal processions were a somewhat regular occurrence in the Roman Empire and involved a conquering general marching through the streets of a city which stood conquered. The celebration of victory would be mingled with the sorrow of some of those who had been conquered. As Rome marched victoriously through a city, their arrival and victory meant the arrival of Rome’s authority, their culture, and their way of life. To some living in a city, this was profoundly good news - it was a thing to be celebrated. For others, Rome’s arrival was the destruction of what they loved, what they hoped for, their entire way of life - a way of life that was often counter to Roman rule and Roman culture. 

Paul describes here the ministry of the church as a parade of victory, led by Christ through the streets of cities that - whether they realize it or not - have come under the rule of King Jesus. The ministry of the church, above everything else, is to announce the Lordship of Jesus over the nations. He has conquered sin, death and all the powers. This will be glorious news to some, and wicked news to others. 

What about the smells?

As the church announces and embodies all that the reign of Jesus entails - including his grace and his commands - this will smell like 1 of 2 things. He does not use a range of responses to the arrival of the Word but instead gives us two opposite responses. To some, it will smell like life. To others, it will smell like death. The aroma of life will lead to more life (“...life to life…”), and the aroma of death will lead to a weightier and more permanent death (“...death to death…”). The announcement of Jesus’ victory and kingdom will always lead to one of two responses - one of two impressions. The same substance, but two very different assessments. Death is not simply an unpleasant smell, it is a repugnant one. And note, this isn’t simply repugnance towards the content of what is proclaimed but to the entire life (including their ethics) and worship of God’s people. If all of life is lived in glad obedience to the rule of Jesus, then all of life will begin to have the stench of death to those who do not love God and his words. 

The Christian life and message is not simply an invitation, it is a proclamation. It declares the Lordship, the authority of Jesus over everything. And it invites all people to be reconciled to God in and through the work of Jesus on the cross. Both of these things will smell repugnant to some: Firstly, that no one is their own Lord and in the second place, that reconciliation with God is essential and necessary. To the man ruled by his own lusts and desires, the declaration of Jesus’ lordship is repugnant. To the man who is righteous in his own eyes and by his own efforts, the call to be forgiven and reconciled to God is repugnant. These things smell like death because they require a kind of death - a death to one’s own lordship and death to one’s own self-righteousness. 

What does love require?

Among the many implications of this remarkable description by Paul is that loving one's neighbor is neither contingent on, nor defined by our neighbors’ response. Love seeks the objective (read, Scriptural) good of its object. Love tells the truth. Love will therefore seek the good in accordance with the reign of Jesus and the invitation to be reconciled. This means that love will often smell like death and be received as if you just dragged a dead body into a dinner party. It may be called hurtful. It may be called abusive or oppressive, but if it is love, it will be aligned with the person and the commands and words of God. 

But love is not simply a commitment to what is true, it must also be motivated by the desire for another’s good. As another writer has said, love is “treating others lawfully from the heart.” It isn’t enough to treat others lawfully we must be motivated by their good. You treat others as God commands because you want their genuine well-being. This good is objective (its defined by God in the Scriptures) but it is also motivated by a real desire for your neighbor’s good. 

This is what I mean when I say that loving your neighbor faithfully will often entail making enemies of your neighbor. Not out of meanness, but out of a genuine desire to see them reconciled to God and walking in the wisdom and life that God’s commands provide. This reconciliation and obedience will smell like death. 

Temptations

Paul goes on to describe a real temptation at this point. And it is important to note what he says and what he doesn’t say. He doesn’t emphasize the down-playing of the necessity of reconciliation, though I think that’s a real temptation. He emphasizes the temptation to become a “peddler” of God’s words. We are tempted in a situation like this to begin trading on God’s words. Exchanging bits of it that may not be well received, downplaying the craggy edges of the bible while emphasizing the appealing bits. His answer to this temptation is that we “speak in Christ.” It is an appeal to remember that our speech and actions, taken in love are grounded in a prior loyalty, namely loyalty to Jesus. We continue to speak and love this way because we do not have the authority to trade or cover-up or change God’s actual words to all people. And so we speak and live in accordance with God’s words, in joyful submission to the authority of Jesus and we do so motivated by love - especially when such love will be received like the smell of death. 

So, in the first place, be set apart for Jesus. Belong to Jesus. Trust in Jesus and in so doing, love his words - all of them, even the parts the world around us thinks smell terrible. Then, because you belong to Jesus and because you love your neighbor, speak those words, obey those words, and believe that those words will bear the true fruit that God promises. 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it

Isaiah 55:10-11