01.04 | You Smell Good

2 Corinthians 2:5-3:18

‘For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing’

2 Corinthians 2:15

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My younger sister once spent four months living in Malawi. She lived with a team of other Brits, in temporary accommodation set up by the project they were joining. The furniture in their lounge was plastic, and so, to make it a little more homey, they threw a blanket over the top of the couch.

One day they noticed a smell developing. Not a nice one. Assuming it would clear in time, they left it, but, as the days passed, the smell only grew worse. As it became increasingly unbearable, they began looking for the cause. It didn’t take them long: under the blanket, squished between it and the hard couch beneath, was a very squashed dead rat, steadily decomposing in the Malawian heat, after its untimely end beneath somebody’s unsuspecting bottom.

Smell is a powerful thing. Bad smells can drive us from a room, and good smells can draw us into that fabulous coffee shop or artisan bakery. Smells powerfully evoke memory and emotion. The global scent industry is estimated to be worth more than $40 billion (with thanks to Chat GBT for throwing out that statistic).

Paul today uses this metaphor: smell. 

What do we smell like to God?

Maybe not a question you’ve asked. But there’s a biblical backstory here. It goes right back into the Old Testament, where the most common form of worship was sacrifice. The ancient world operated on a worship relationship with their deities which included the bringing of something—an offering that cost them—to their god. In agrarian societies, this invariably meant either grain, wine, oil, or animals. 

The Old Testament story, from Genesis onwards, shows God’s people inhabiting this cultural norm. Worship, for them, was never focused on what they could gain in a feel-good worship experience: rather, worship was about what they could bring. And, again and again throughout the descriptions of sacrifice throughout the Old Testament, we are told that the sacrifices smelled good. They were a ‘pleasing aroma’.

Anyone who has walked past a good barbecue on a summers day knows this. The Greek translation of the Old Testament uses the word euodia. It literally means ‘good-smell’. Sacrifices smelled good to God because they were an offering of gratitude and love towards Him. He values what His people put on the altar. To Him there is no greater smell.

Paul picks up this idea. He’s about to launch into a beautiful unpacking of how radically distinct the Christian is to be among the value systems of the world. And he starts here. You are a euodia. A good-smell. A pleasing aroma. Such a good smell, in fact, that to God, your lives carry the very aroma of Jesus. When God sniffs your life, He smells the wholesome beauty and goodness of your King. 

You smell that good. 

Do tell all your friends.

A caveat: smelling like Jesus doesn’t always make you popular. life on this altar means radical deviation from the norms and values of the world around you. Your life will operate from different values. It will carry a different aroma. And while some will smell life, others will smell death.

This takes us to the core of our motives. It is not simply to have an attractive life; it is to have a life that is attractive to Him. It is to live on His altar. It is to point our every thought and act and value towards Jesus. He is the original good-smell.

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Reflect:

Reflect on my life right now.

Who am I trying to make it smell good for?

Remember, to the Father, you carry the very aroma of Jesus.

With this in mind, what do I need to bring to the altar today?

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Pray:

Father,

I’ve noticed we’re going on another journey here—

Tracking with Paul through these themes of power and weakness

And love and suffering

And beauty and pain.

I give you the journey afresh:

Work in me for your glory.

And, Father, I choose to accept this mind-bending truth,

That my life to you,

Is not wretched in the scent of failure,

But is delightful in the very aroma of Jesus.

Teach my heart this indescribable truth.

And, Father,

One more thing:

I return to the altar.

I am sorry for where I have messed around

At the altars of the world—

Trying to smell good to everyone else

When only your view matters.

I return to your ways today.

Convict me, heal me, challenge me, change me,

Unto rejection or acceptance

And yet unto the glory of Your Name

In Jesus’ Name

Amen

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

Deuteronomy 31:14-32:47 | Psalm 42