The Aroma of Christ: Why the Gospel Attracts Some and Offends Others

Summary

A fishing trip illustrates how Christians can be unaware of how they “smell” to unbelievers. While some perceive hypocrisy and judgment, Scripture explains that the gospel itself carries different effects. Believers are the fragrance of Christ, life to those being saved, and offensive to those resisting God. Our role is to share Christ lovingly and faithfully. The response belongs to God, not us.

In 1990, my father and I traveled to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota to fish. We slept in a tent on a Basswood Lake island campsite, fished for ten days, and ate freeze-dried food except for fish.

We drank water from the lake. We used a latrine on the island. We heard wolves howling and loons serenading us every night. We didn’t see another person the entire time.

On the day we left to return home, we saw another guy on a dock and told him we had not had a shower or bath in ten days. He stepped backward away from us immediately!

When We Can’t Smell Ourselves

We could smell nothing unpleasant, but my wife, who later washed our clothes, wasn’t sure they would be salvageable! Our “aroma” can offend others while we remain unaware of it.

How Unbelievers Often Perceive Christians

Sadly, that is often the case when unbelievers in the U.S. encounter professing Christians reeking of hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and being judgmental despite thinking they are compassionate and loving. To unbelievers, they smell like a skunk, while the Christians imagine they are roses.

“In a survey of 3119 Americans aged over 18, carried out by Ipsos for the Episcopal Church in the United States, half of those who described themselves as non-religious considered American Christians to be “self-righteous”, 55 percent “hypocritical”, and 54 percent “judgmental.”1

To be fair to Christians in the U.S., there is another dynamic at work. Some folks enjoy the scent of cut grass, leather, lavender, tobacco, or licorice. Others detest them all. Fragrance is in the nose of the beholder!

Fragrance Depends on the One Smelling It

My wife’s least favorite church service is Easter. She can’t attend. She is allergic to flowers, which abundantly decorate the sanctuary on Easter morning.  Lilies are one of the worst offenders. She associates their scent with asthma.

The Sweet Aroma of Christ

Not everyone enjoys the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ. “But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. 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” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15 NLT).

Why the Gospel Inevitably Offends Some

Even though God’s compassion and love ooze out of every pore, we will offend some people because they do not intend to replace their self-centeredness with God-centered living. The Christian message threatens their independence and smells like week-old fish.

We are responsible for sharing God’s good news, but not the response we receive. We share the message in the power of the Holy Spirit. The results are God’s responsibility.

1.     American Christians seen as ‘hypocritical’ and ‘judgemental’, study suggests

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