2 Corinthians 2

Bible Passage:  2 Corinthians 2

The Corinth church was one that had many issues and Paul was grieved to see them in this state. He rebuked them for their foolishness, lust, pride and divisiveness and he did that because of his love for them. Although Paul was even rejected by some of them, when we read 2Cor10:10, he persevered in his concern for their well-being and spiritual growth.

In the first half of this chapter, Paul encouraged the believers to forgive one another. However, I would like to focus on the second half of this chapter though. Paul thanked God that He gave them victory for Christ and that through them they were able to diffuse the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. Furthermore, he said that they were the fragrance of Christ to those who were being saved and who were perishing; and that they were an aroma of death leading to death and an aroma of life leading to life.

Today are we the fragrance of Christ to the people around us? Today do we emanate this aroma? The fragrance of Christ I would think is a sweet smelling; one that is characterized by meekness, love, obedience and knowledge. Jesus in the flesh demonstrated what is meekness to man and to God. He demonstrated His great love to man through preaching the Kingdom of Heaven and healing the sick and through obedience to the Father even to the point of death on the cross.

Moreover, He demonstrated to us what is True Knowledge; and that is to seek first the kingdom of God and to rely on Him who saves us.

Fragrance of Christ

Often we have heard from the preachers and brothers and sisters the need and duty to preach the gospel. Not denying, preaching can be daunting and has little rewards; in fact it requires substantial sacrifice. I would think, that Paul’s description of fragrance actually tells us the lack in ourselves.

Do we emanate a strong fragrant aroma, dull aroma or worse still pungent smell? Often than not, we fail to be the fragrance of Christ is because we have not truly put on Christ and walked as a new man. People fail to see Christ in us; some may even wonder if we are Christians.

When we do preaching, quite often we get negative responses from non-believers as they have bad opinions on Christians (not our church). These Christians have emanated pungent smell to these people. There are many Christians (not from our church) whom I know have not emanated this fragrance of Christ.

Some of them are drunkards, stuck-ups and hypocrites.

Also because of these people, it becomes even harder for us Christians to change the negative opinions in general of Christianity in Singapore. In this end times, we have to carefully examine ourselves and to completely put on Christ so that we can be the light to this dark world and a fragrance of life to those who seek eternal life.

Fragrance of His Knowledge

Paul stated also that they diffused the fragrance of His Knowledge.

This knowledge is the Truth in the Bible.

As True Jesus Church members, by the grace of God we have received the complete Truth.

However, do we diffuse this complete Truth to people so that they can come to the obedience of this Truth?

Often than not we do not do it because we ourselves do not really understand fully this Truth we received. We also have not sharpened our Sword of the Spirit and used it in spiritual battles. Pr. Kong in one of his sermons encouraged us that knowledge of the Word of God requires putting effort.

Moreover, studying the Word of God does not end when we finished the short-term theological course, but rather it is an on going effort on our part in our life of faith. There were some questions I had in the past, but through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and my effort on my part in doing research, I have answered these questions satisfactory to my standard.

I feel that it is important for all of us, myself included to continue in our pursuit in the knowledge of God and to sharpen our Swords for spiritual battles ahead.

Peddling the word of God

Lastly, Paul declared that he and his team of preachers did not peddle the word of God. Peddle in this context refers to selling for a profit. We know that Paul did not want to rely on the members to provide his sustenance, but rather he was a tent maker and at the same time a full time preacher.

By his own effort he provided for himself and at the same time he managed to preach the gospel far and wide. He did not want to burden the brethrens to provide for him and he truly preached to save the souls of men.

I find this verse peculiar for today’s context, as there are many Christian denominations that are peddling the word of God. There are many cases where we hear or read of pastors driving very luxurious cars and some of them declaring that bringing glory to God is equated to being successful in society and hence the rationale of driving big and expensive cars.

Some even peddle the word of God to such an extent as declaring that offerings to God are investments and they justify that Jesus in the flesh was very rich and that Judas was the CFO (Chief Financial Officer).

It may sound ludicrous, but these things are really happening in Singapore and other places in the world. We have to guard ourselves or we may we get tricked by such Christian sales tactics. More importantly, we ought to emulate Paul to preach the gospel sincerely and with the fear of God.

As a closing verse,

“Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (1 Pet 2:11-12)

May our Lord Jesus help transform us to a sweet smelling fragrance and bring glory to Him.