What’s that smell? by Deon Crafford

2 Corinthians 2:15-16 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?

It is stated that the earnings of the global perfume industry in 2020 was around $32.8 billion, with an estimated growth rate of 4% per annum. If those are earnings, imagine how much is spent producing those earnings. That is an awful lot of money spent to make people smell better and be more presentable or attractive. It is based on the premise that in our natural state we’re not covered by the most favourable aromas, and we need something extra to be easier to live with. There is hardly anyone of us today that don’t benefit from some or other additive fragrance, even in just using a perfumed soap. 

Our spiritual lives are the same. In our natural form we don’t exude a pleasant fragrance. There is not much pleasant that can come from an obsession with self promotion and an being addicted to affirmation. Neither does continuous anxiety, fear and self-preservation emit a pleasantness. Perhaps the most putrid smell comes from our judgement , our exclusiveness and worst of all our deceptive presentation of holiness. And since many of us are also in the church, imagine how vile it must smell to the world, when all it relies on, are professing Christians in their natural state.

But for us there is a solution to the putridness that envelopes us. The beautiful and overwhelming fragrance of Jesus Christ drowns out all the bad odours that emanate from me in my natural state. By exposing myself to heart of Jesus Christ, through the infusion of the Holy Spirit, my aroma turns to pleasant and I become attractive to those searching for answers and meaning in a decaying world. The more time I spend in the presence of the Spirit, the more intense the infusion of Christ’s aroma in me. Are those around me attracted or repulsed by my fragrance? The answer is in whom I spent my time with most – self or Spirit.

Love to all

DC