Walk into any respectable luxury shopping centre and you will be overwhelmed by the sheer scent over racks and racks of perfumes. Over a hundred kinds of pleasantry smells: fruity, sexy, fresh, musky, floral, woody, oceanic, of various tones and notes. Advertisements portraying good-looking people, “bathing” themselves in these fragrances in abandonment; they then like donning on an invisible power and attraction that they never had, and other people just cannot resist their alluring presence. Dramatic, but I think you get the sniff.
The sense of smell is one of the 5 main senses we humans have. We had come a long way since the ancient times, where the sense of smell is used to detect if something has turned bad or to notice when something is really good. The scent of our loved ones and fond familiar places will bring great joy, comfort, memories and relieve to us. The smell of the garden, ocean, or forest will bring another dimension out from the place, giving a bigger physical presence. And one of the biggest reactions one will ever have is from smell of food!
The qualities of a scent is that it is mostly subtle and not forcefully. It can be carried a long way off and even without line-of-sight. There need not be any physical contact but its presence is undeniable. In strength, the scent can cover a great areas, saturating everything within it.
Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
In the Bible, there are also mentions of sweet scent of perfume. But this aroma is not one detected only by the nose. It is something sensed by those around us; the knowledge of Christ; the living Word is like a sweet aroma. Our redeemed Christ-like lives are like fragrance rising to God; how beautiful a picture that is. It is not the pseudo-fragrances the world covers themselves in.
As sweet aroma is usually a by-product of something else, something more substantial; our fragrance is born out of the faith in Jesus and Jesus Himself. He was the rose that was crushed; to let out His fragrance, and mixed with the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit, a lovely sweet perfume was made. It is given freely to anyone who are saved; and those who wants to be saved. And when we focus our love on Jesus and walk in the Spirit of love and humility, we exude out this life-giving wonderful perfume of Christ.
And we smell really good!
King David 