The Fragrance of Life to Life

2 Cor. 2:17

For we are not like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God in the sight of God we speak in Christ. 

Paul had thanked God for leading him specifically where he should go, in fact, always in a triumphal procession, and through them [Paul and those who minister with him] spreading the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. This was his mission, his call. Yet, when he came to Troas, where a door was opened, he could not go in because his spirit was not at rest. Christ was not leading him here. If he had been a common peddler of the word of God, he would have gone in, but he wasn't. He was a representative of Christ, a representative who must follow His bidding. 

Where Christ and the Spirit lead, there will be the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. They were the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance of death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. What a ministry! Is my life an aroma for Christ from life to life? Am I so in tune with Him that I can choose rightly where and when I should go?

Considering the weightiness of this issue, Paul asked a pointed question, Who is sufficient for these things? Who can really know where the fragrance will bring life or death? No one. That is why relying on the Spirit is so important. If they [or us] were retail peddlers of the word of God, it would be different, but they [and us] are men of sincerity, commissioned by God, and in the sight of God to speak only in Christ. Such an identity as this changes everything. Just think to speak all my words only in Christ, total sincerity [no sarcasm or disdain], always remembering who has commissioned me. 

Father,

I want to be one of you sincere speakers who speak in Christ alone. Show me how to be that fragrance from life to life to those who need to hear the message. 

In Jesus name,

Amen