Q1. The Fragrance of Christ

[royk]

Q1. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16a) In what sense is knowing God fragrant to people who are open to God? In what way is this fragrance repugnant to people who are closed to God? Have you suppressed your "fragrance" because some people are allergic to Christian perfume? If so, how can you regain the fragrance of Christ's gospel?

 

Last night my wife and I were in a Whole Foods store to buy Sunflower-butter, like peanut butter. I was touched by the smile and helpfulness of a cashier we stopped her work to lead us to the right aisle. There was something in the air, just as it is now; praise God.

 

When we left to pay I felt it again when another cashier said bless you to a woman who sneezed. So I said, here's a tip "Jesus died for your sins and mine."  He showed me a tattoo on his arm "Jesus Christ, Savior"  i though wow, thank you God. The world isa a good place.

 

It is possible with the right kind of breath to pray and thank God for life in the moment, in any moment.

 

God is all powerful, may you find Him NOW!

[dixonle]

Q1. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16a) In what sense is knowing God fragrant to people who are open to God? In what way is this fragrance repugnant to people who are closed to God? Have you suppressed your "fragrance" because some people are allergic to Christian perfume? If so, how can you regain the fragrance of Christ's gospel? http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1078

 

In our notes, we see fragrance defined as a pleasant or bad odor which quality affects the mind accordingly. Aroma on the other hand is only seen as pleasant fragrance, pleasing to God. In this chapter and elsewhere the fragrance of the gospel is the knowledge of God and anytime that fragrance is shared with others, God is pleased.  Many people are searching for more of that knowledge and are therefore pleased with learning/experiencing/savoring more or that aroma.  But to those who are turned off to knowledge about God or knowing God, the odor is more repugnant or unpleasant.

 

The “odor” or repugnant (offensive, distasteful, vile) smell is akin to the “putrefying flesh of a corpse. Those who are smelling this are those who are closed to knowing or having relationships with God and therefore Paul indicates this as the “pungent odor of eternal death as the person heads for and winds up in hell, separated from God.

 

But those believers who are hungry for more of God are experiencing the pleasant smell of a perfume of being saved and rescued from their sins and heading to an eternal home with God.

[WinstonY]

Q1. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16a) In what sense is knowing God fragrant to people who are open to God? In what way is this fragrance repugnant to people who are closed to God? Have you suppressed your “fragrance” because some people are allergic to Christian perfume? If so, how can you regain the fragrance of Christ’s gospel? 

 

Lesson 3.1

 

Paul had great success in preaching the Gospel. Even here where he is anxious over the whereabouts of Titus and the situation in Corinth he cannot help but be buoyed up by the thought of his past success such as in Troas. He cannot help but express his awe of the success given by God. It seems as if the fragrance of the Gospel is spread infectiously through the people. In knowing God there is a certain efference that is infectious and spreads like a fragrance through the crowd in a triumphal. In order for this to happen it seems as if two conditions must be in order. First God must open the nostrils of the people so that they can receive the scent and as well the people must be willing to receive the scent. People can be difficult and are especially so when they have been conditioned through life to the thinking of the scientific method.

The imagery Paul uses here is of Jesus leading a triumphal procession through the city. In Paul's mind Jesus was probably riding a donkey with palm branches and his followers giving shouts of joy. This is such a joyous occasion with the Spirit round about- rather a combination of Palm Sunday and the day of Pentecost. The spirit would spread quite easily through the crowd like a pleasan aroma or fragrance. The aroma is pleasant for those who are oprn to the message of Jesus' gospel. However it would be a pongent odour to those who are not open to God. The fragrance of God is the fragrance of the knowledge of God and His kingdom.

It seems as if there are two groups of people. Those who accept the fragrance and those who do not. The lives of those who accept give of an aroma which is pleasing to the God's world and to God but is an unpleasant odour to those who do not accept the Word.

[lighthouse2014]

Q1. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16a) In what sense is knowing God fragrant to people who are open to God? In what way is this fragrance repugnant to people who are closed to God? Have you suppressed your “fragrance” because some people are allergic to Christian perfume? If so, how can you regain the fragrance of Christ’s gospel?

Knowing God is indeed a fragrance scent to those who are open to god and his Christ. For they know and have experienced the newness of life in Christ and the defeat of Satin and his deceitfulness to lead people astray so that they go eternal damnation from God.

Those that reject the gospel and its good news have closed themselves off from God. The gospel has a repugnant fragrance to their nostrils, they deplore the good news - and so confirm their commitment to eternal separation from God.

I have at times suppressed my fragrance to other people, not because they may or may not except the gospel. My fragrance is suppressed because I feel unworthy to carry to others the good news of God and Jesus Christ. Unable to share that which I have inside waiting to explode out ward, the word of God.

I' m having a hard time trying to regain that which I once had, to spread the sweet fragrance of Christ. Prayers every night that the Lord would send his Holy Spirit once again to help empower me so that I could boldly go out preaching God's Holy word.  

[Krissi]

Knowing God is difficult to describe -- as it is beyond anything we have in our daily lives -- that the Bible uses parables and metaphors that refer to our senses. Most of the time, the senses of sight and hearing are used. Sight is a metaphor for understanding ... hearing, too. Here, however, it is the sense of smell. Those who are open to God can either actually smell Him; metaphorically smell Him as a pleasant fragrance. Those who are closed to Him find the same smell repugnant.

Increasingly, I do not hide His fragrance. I am careful in how I word things and constantly judge the response I'm receiving, so I suppose I'm "suppressing" the word, in that sense, but really I'm just spoon-feeding the gospel as much as possible. I live among secular people so this is a practiced response. 

I think it is most difficult to witness to one's own family and closest friends. They know ... and they hate -- yes, hate! -- the gospel message. The good news is repugnant to them. My response has always been to back away and pray, to just stand there while praying for God to fight His own battle.