A Fragrance of Christ
12 Now when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord, 13 I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn’t find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia. 14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. 15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who perish: 16 to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
An open door is walked away from out of anxiety, and then a victory parade is described from the losing side of it.
Verse 12 sets up an opportunity in the strongest terms available: when I came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and when a door was opened to me in the Lord.
And he left. I had no relief for my spirit, because I didn't find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went out into Macedonia. An open door, described as opened by the Lord, abandoned because a friend had not arrived with news. Paul reports it without excusing it, which is the same candor the letter has shown about despair 2 Corinthians 1:8.
Then verse 14 breaks in with thanks, and the image chosen is a Roman triumph: thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.
The procession he names had two kinds of participant. The general rode; the captives walked in front of his chariot on their way to be displayed and often killed. Paul puts himself in the parade without claiming the chariot, which fits a man who has just described leaving a city because he was too anxious to work.
The incense in verse 15 comes from the same scene, and its double effect is the point: we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who perish: to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life.
One smell, two meanings, decided entirely by which side of the procession a person is on. Nothing about the aroma changes. What that says about preaching is uncomfortable and deliberate — the same message cannot be adjusted to smell better to those it condemns, and a messenger who tries has stopped carrying it.
Which is why the paragraph ends in a question rather than a claim: who is sufficient for these things? The answer is withheld until the next chapter, where it is given away from himself 2 Corinthians 3:5.
And verse 17 names the alternative he refuses: we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. The verb belongs to a tavern keeper who waters the wine — a retailer who makes a living by weakening the product.
settled What this mark means