They Could Smell Our Christian Perfume! by Gail Purath

Two years ago, Michael and I visited Vienna on a cold, wet weekend. After tromping around in the drizzle for several hours, we ended up back in our hotel lobby close to the tea service. While sipping steaming cups of tea, an American couple came in to register for a room and initiated a conversation with us. We explained we were missionaries in Budapest, and the woman told us she had attended a Christian college.

Since this couple had been traveling together for three weeks and registered for one room, I assumed they were married. But when I asked where they lived, the woman seemed embarrassed to admit they were just friends and lived in two different states.

Michael and I said nothing to add to her discomfort. Instead, we continued in friendly conversation; and when they left for their room, we told them we enjoyed visiting with them. However, the following morning at breakfast, they barely acknowledged our greetings and walked past the empty table next to ours. I think it was our smell…

There is a whole generation of Americans who aren’t even aware that God lovingly prohibits sex outside of marriage. They think premarital sex is natural instead of realizing it is harmful to their spiritual and emotional well-being. But the couple we met in Vienna was from an older generation, and the woman had gone to Bible college. I think they understood that their relationship was neither healthy for them nor pleasing to God. And Michael and I were an uncomfortable reminder of this fact. You could say that our “Christian perfume” was offensive to them.

2 Corinthians 2:15,16 says, “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...” (NLT)

Of course, this fragrance isn’t the only thing that offends people. We Christians can also emit the nasty odors of self-righteousness, legalism and superiority. Recently I read the book They Like Jesus, but Not the Church by Dan Kimbell. He talks about our tendency as Christians to talk about God’s judgment more than God’s love, to focus on what we oppose more than what we embrace. He makes some good points. It's not our job to judge those outside of the church (1 Corinthians 5:9-13).

I’ve also read several books by Ray Comfort, a New Zealand missionary to the U.S. He believes American Christians share God’s love without sharing His law and judgment, thus deceiving people into false conversions without warning them of the consequences of sin. He makes some good points as well. God gives His commands for our good, and we have no business watering them down or ignoring them in order to make the Gospel more palatable. If a person doesn’t understand their sin, they won’t understand their need for a Savior.

It can be hard at times to explain Christ because He is just as merciful, forgiving and loving toward repentant man, as He is unforgiving and just toward unrepentant man. No wonder that the passage I quoted earlier (about our fragrance) ends with this statement: “And who is adequate for such a task as this?” (verse16b).

How do we, who bear the fragrance of Christ, give an accurate picture of Christ to those around us? How can we avoid stressing certain aspects of His character at the expense of other aspects? Some people are wallowing in regret and pain for their sin. They feel they will never be good enough to come to Christ, and we must tell them of God’s grace and love. Other people are self-satisfied. They think that they will receive God’s mercy no matter what they do or what they believe, and we must tell them of God’s purity and judgment.

But how can we know when to stress grace and when to stress purity? Who of us is adequate for the task? Our answer is found in 2 Corinthians 3:5: “...our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” We have the Holy Spirit to guide us, and He knows exactly what needs to be said in any situation. Because of that—and only because of that—we are able to bear Christ’s fragrance!