A fragrance of life
14 Now thanks be to the God who always leads us in triumph in the Christ,The title ‘Christ’ is usually accompanied by the definite article, ‘the Christ’—we are not to forget what the title really means. and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of HimThe antecedent of the pronoun could be either the Father or the Son, but in this context most likely refers to the Son—getting to know Him is in view. in every place. 15 Because we are the aroma of Christ for God, among those who are being saved and among those who are being wastedWe are accustomed to ‘perishing’. The verb here has a considerable semantic area and can be rendered—destroy, kill, deprive, void, lose, perish—depending on the context, but I believe the root idea is ‘waste’. The only way to fulfill the purpose for which you were created, to realize your potential, is to turn your life over to Jesus. The alternative is to waste your life, both now and forever. Of course the enemy works to make people think the opposite.— 16 to these a smell of death into death, while to those a fragrance of life into lifeThe Gospel of Christ represents both life and death: if you receive it, you get life; if you reject it, you get death. Naturally, those in rebellion against God do not enjoy being reminded that they have chosen death.—and who is adequate for such things? 17 However, we are not like the restThe Greek manuscripts are about evenly divided between "the rest" and ‘the many’, but I follow the best line of transmission. who retailA retailer makes his living by buying goods wholesale and reselling them piecemeal, at a profit. In our day there is no lack of those who dole out their teaching, precisely with a view to getting more money out of it. the word of God; rather, we speak in Christ, out of sincerity, as of God in His very presence.To be objectively aware that you are in God’s presence does have a way of encouraging you to make the right choices!