A Sweet Fragrance and Foul Stench

D.A. Carson, on 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, in For the Love of God (Sept. 13):

Before God Paul himself is an aroma, "the aroma of Christ among both those who are being saved and those who are perishing" (2:15). "To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life" (2:16). in other words, Paul insists that he does not himself change, depending on his audience. He is the same aroma; he proclaims the same Gospel, the same discipleship, the same Christ, the same way to live. Whether he is perceived to be a sweet fragrance or a foul stench does not depend on some change in him, but on the people who must deal with him. Implicitly, the Corinthians must recognize that some animus against the apostle is the animus of the unregenerate heart. "And who is equal to such a task?" (2:16).