What Message Are You Sending?

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We're in the midst of a sermon series focused on the Apostle Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, which is, without a doubt the most personal, the most painful, and the most passionate of all of Paul's letters. Here we see that Paul is not afraid to share his feelings and even his wounds. Actually, he gives us his heart and shares even his deepest vulnerabilities with us. And through it all, the central theme is this: God's power is made perfect not in human strength but in human weakness. And for that reason, I have suggested that 2 Corinthians is the letter for our times.

As a society, we are experiencing what the sociologist James Davison Hunter has called a great unraveling. The fabric of our society is unraveling right before our very eyes. By that he means that if you consider the last several centuries, there have always been people who have rejected the Christian faith, but even if those people have rejected Christian beliefs, they’ve still clung to and lived by Christian norms, Christian values, and Christian morals. But the more we move into the late modern world and the more secular the world around us becomes, the more those shared values, shared norms, and shared morals are eroding. So the fabric of society is unraveling, and Hunter's chief insight is that this crisis is not merely a crisis of politics or a crisis of culture. No, it goes much deeper than that. What we're experiencing is a crisis of meaning.

Frederich Nietzsche predicted this would happen, and in fact, he was hoping that it would happen, because when people stop thinking that there is any purpose, meaning, or value to life, it leads to a very dark place. It leads to nihilism. We're living in a nihilistic moment. See, when there aren't any shared values — when there's no Truth with a capital T — then all that's left are power grabs, or what Nietzsche called a will to power. And this will to power forces people to double down on their commitment to their tribe, whatever their tribe may be. And the name of the game is “win at all costs.” It's kill or be killed.

This winner-takes-all mentality fuels a spirit of resentment and an ethic of revenge. And this is not a bug; this is a feature of our modern world. This is what a nihilistic culture looks like, and the danger is that even Christians are susceptible to fostering that spirit of resentment or that ethic of revenge, if we're not careful.

But I think this idea of a great unraveling explains what we see playing out before our very eyes on the world stage. I think it helps explain the conflict between Israel and Gaza, Russia and Ukraine. It explains the collapse of the post World War II order, and I think it also helps explain the animosity that tries to justify violence against political leaders on the left and the right. See, if you think that your opponent is not merely wrong but evil or subhuman, well then you can try to justify anything.

So the question I want to put before us today is: In this nihilistic moment, will we choose the way of Nietzsche or will we choose the way of Jesus? And that's what makes 2 Corinthians the letter of our times. Because we may not have realized this before, but the Apostle Paul dealt with a similar crisis. Now, his situation was different. He lived in a very, very different world. But the way in which Paul responded to his crisis shows us how to choose the Jesus way.

In our passage today, Paul asks us to consider the message that our lives are sending. The controlling image throughout this passage is based on verse 15, where Paul says that we are the aroma of Christ. Now, you cannot see a fragrance like perfume, but you can spread it. He's telling us that we're called to spread the knowledge of God everywhere. We're called to spread the fragrance of the gospel — the aroma of Christ. So what message are our lives sending?

Some studies suggest that only 7% of communication is based on words. The expression on your face, the way you're sitting, the way you look at other people, the things that you attach to yourself (like a shirt or your shoes): They all communicate. Even this building is communicating something to you right now. And you see, as human beings, we're constantly giving and receiving information, and we're assessing the information that we're receiving. We're constantly giving and receiving messages. So what message are you communicating to the world around you, not only through your words, but also through the life that you are living?

Well, when it comes to the Church's witness to a watching world in a moment of chaos and confusion, I don't think anything could be more important than the message that we send by the lives we live. So during our time together today, what I'd like us to do is consider the message of our lives under three headings. Essentially, Paul is asking us if we’re sending a message of: 1) love or hate, 2) sincerity or spin, and 3) life or death.

⁵Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. ⁶For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, ⁷so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. ⁸So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. ¹⁰Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

¹²When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, ¹⁶to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? ¹⁷For 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.

2 Corinthians 2:5-17

Love or Hate?

First, Paul asks us whether we are sending a message of love or hate through our lives. Specifically, he tells the Corinthians in verse 7 that now's the time to turn and forgive a man who had previously caused pain. Here's the context. After writing 1 Corinthians, Paul makes a second unplanned trip to Corinth to deal with some kind of emergency. We don't know exactly what it was, but we can make an educated guess.

What you need to know is that Corinth was essentially the original sin city. You know what they used to say about Corinth? “What happens in Corinth stays in Corinth.” It had a bit of a reputation. So what was the emergency? Well it probably had something to do with what Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 5. Apparently there was an unnamed man in Corinth who was sleeping with his father's wife. Initially the church in Corinth was reluctant to do anything to try to sort out this situation. So Paul makes this emergency trip, but when he arrives, this unnamed man publicly attacks him in some way and causes pain not only to Paul but also to the church as a whole. As a result, Paul ends up leaving Corinth and goes back to Ephesus humiliated and defeated.

From Ephesus, he writes a third letter, which he refers to as a sorrowful letter because he wrote it with tears streaming down his cheeks. But this letter did the trick, because now the Corinthians respond; not everyone, but the majority of the people in the church put in place some kind of disciplinary process in order to help the man see the error of his ways — and he receives it! He acknowledges his fault, makes amends, and changes his path. And so now, Paul writes, now is the time to turn and to forgive and to comfort this man so that he is not overwhelmed or swallowed up by excessive sorrow. Paul begs them, “I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.” So this ends up being a biblical picture of reconciliation.

And therefore the first question that Paul puts to us is, is your life sending a message of love or hate? Is your life sending a message of forgiveness or bitterness? Are you extending grace, or are you holding onto a grudge? And let me tell you why this is so important: because it's impossible to maintain any kind of relationship with another person without forgiveness. When any two human beings interact, there are going to be problems, because every human being is messed up, broken, and flawed. So it's impossible to maintain any kind of relationship — it doesn't matter if you're talking about a marriage, a friendship, a work relationship — you can't maintain any kind of relationship without forgiveness.

So the question is, how will you respond when someone causes you pain? Now, bear in mind, we're focusing specifically on interpersonal relationships. We're not necessarily talking about what you should do after a criminal offense has been committed, like a murder or abuse. But still, the question is, when a wrong has been committed, what do you do? Because a done deed cannot be undone. So when you've been wronged, there really are just two options: You can either forgive, or you can make the other person pay.

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that you literally seek retaliation or revenge, but you could try to make the other person pay by nursing a grudge or by harboring resentment toward them or by allowing a little root of bitterness to spring up in your heart. But you know what happens when you do that? The evil passes into your heart. The evil passes into your life. And that's why forgiveness is the only way to stop the cycle; because when you forgive, you condemn the act as wrong. You condemn the act in order to spare the person. That's why Leo Tolstoy once said that when you forgive, you swallow up evil and prevent it from spreading any farther.

Now, forgiveness is a distinctively Christian value. Remember that Jesus commanded his followers not only to forgive friends but even to forgive enemies. But here's what I fear. I fear that in this moment in which we're living, forgiveness is beginning to fade just when we need it the most. Alan Jacobs teaches at Baylor University, and he has written that when a society gives up a Christian account of the world, it doesn't become less moralistic or less judgmental but moreso. You might think, well, if people rejected Christianity, then the world would become less moralistic and less judgmental. But no, it's the opposite. When you discount or get rid of a Christian account of the world, society becomes more moralistic and more judgmental.

Just think about it: When I was a kid growing up in the eighties and the nineties, relativism was king. What did people say? People said everybody has to be free to determine what is right and wrong for themselves. No one should ever tell anybody else what to do. The one cardinal rule was that you should never judge anybody else. But a quick scroll through social media will reveal that relativism is out and vindictiveness is in. Today we think that the right thing to do in response to some kind of wrong or offense is to punish the other person as mercilessly as possible. We should shame them. We should cancel them. We should de-platform them. We should censor them.

We live in a vindictive culture. But what happens to a society that loses the ability to forgive? Well, I would suggest that it eats itself alive. A society that loses the ability to forgive self-destructs. And that's why the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu said there is no future without forgiveness. Forgiveness is key to having any future whatsoever.

So Paul here models a better way for us. And the New Testament biblical scholar N.T. Wright points out the importance of an almost throwaway line in verse 10. Paul says, “Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake.” “If I have forgiven anything”? Paul is so committed to forgiveness, he can't even remember if he has forgiven anyone! Now, is that really possible? Did he really not remember if he'd forgiven anyone? No, I don't think so. What he's showing us is that he's not holding onto anything. He's not replaying past grievances over and over again in his mind. He's not trying to draw some kind of false comfort by playing the victim. He's forgiven and he's forgotten. So in that sense, he doesn't even know if he's forgiven anyone.

Now, that might seem like a nearly impossible task for us to forgive and forget, but this is the only way out of the death trap. And do you see how Paul ends this section in verse 11? He says that we have to forgive “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.” See, let's not kid ourselves. There really is a dark power at work in the world. We really are engaged in a spiritual battle. And as Paul says elsewhere in Ephesians 6, our conflict is not with flesh and blood. Our battle is not with fellow human beings. No, our conflict is with the evil one who would like nothing more than to see us destroy ourselves because of a vindictive spirit rather than forgive. So let's not be outwitted by Satan. We're not ignorant of his designs. We have to forgive.

Sincerity or Spin?

So the first question Paul asks is, is the message of your life one of love or hate? And then secondly he asks, is the message you are sending one of sincerity or spin? So if you drop down to the end of the passage, verse 17, Paul says, “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.” Now here, Paul is very clearly referring to the new teachers that slipped into Corinth after he had left. They tried to discredit Paul and turn the church in Corinth against him. And these new teachers were quite triumphalistic in their views. If Paul was an apostle, they claimed to be super-apostles. They boasted in their speaking ability. They took pride in their dramatic spiritual experiences. In their minds, all they could do is win. They were the winners; Paul was a loser. They were the real deal; Paul was nothing more than an imposter.

But here Paul suggests that even though these teachers might have put on a good show, it was all empty rhetoric. He calls them peddlers of God's Word. Now let me just suggest that he's speaking some fighting words here. He's not messing around. He's not pulling any punches. He calls them peddlers of God's Word. Now, I'll tell you what that's like. It would be a little bit like buying a fake Gucci handbag or a fake Rolex watch from a street vendor in Times Square. He's saying that these new teachers are selling an adulterated version of God's Word. It's not the real thing, but they're trying to pass it off as the genuine article just to make a buck. See, apparently these new teachers were trying to ingratiate themselves with the Christians in Corinth in order to live off of their dole.

Now Paul, as an apostle, as he elsewhere writes, could have asked the Corinthians to support him financially in his ministry, but he purposely chose not to do so. He purposely chooses not to take any money from them for his service as a leader, as an apostle, and instead he makes a point of earning his living with his own hands. Therefore, Paul's point is that he and his companions are men of sincerity rather than spin.

I would suggest that this is an urgently needed warning in our world today, because there are a lot of people who are dressing up their message in Christian garb. But don't be fooled, because they're offering a false gospel, not the real thing. And more likely than not, they're trying to get you to absorb that message in order for them to make money or gain more influence. So we need to be discerning.

Discernment is not the ability to tell right from wrong. Anyone can do that. True discernment is the ability to tell the difference between what is right and what is almost right. So how do we tell the difference between the authentic Word of God and the false word of God, the adulterated word of God, the distorted word of God? Jesus anticipated this. He told us that this would happen, and he said, here's how you tell the difference between a false teacher and a true one: You will recognize them by their fruit. So you have to examine the fruit. Whatever messages you're taking in, what is the fruit of that person's life? What is the fruit in the lives of their followers? You'll know them by their fruit.

So given the current credibility crisis of the Church today, I would say that nothing could be more important than authenticity in leadership, integrity in ministry, and sincerity in speech.

Life or Death?

So Paul's asking us, is the message of your life one of love or hate, sincerity or spin, and then finally, life or death? These so-called super-apostles prided themselves on their strength and their success. They were successes in ministry, whereas they considered Paul to be nothing more than a weak failure. They said that all the difficulties and setbacks that he was experiencing in his ministry were evidence that God was not on his side. God was clearly on their side because of all the success that they were enjoying in Corinth. But no, no, no. Paul doesn't see it that way. Despite his suffering and pain, despite his difficulties and setbacks, Paul says in verse 14, “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession.”

So here he picks up on this triumphalistic theme, and he mixes together a few different metaphors in order to turn our expectations of the Christian life upside down. He turns our expectations of what it means to be a success upside down. See, when Paul says that Jesus always leads us in a triumphal procession, what's he talking about? He's referring to a Roman victory parade. If a general in the Roman Empire won an important victory in battle, the emperor might reward that general with what was called a triumph. It was kind of like a ticker tape parade. This is what Vespasian did for his son, Titus, after he conquered Jerusalem in 70 AD. He led a triumphal procession through the city of Rome.

Now the way in which this victory parade would work would be that usually the general would be leading the procession riding atop a white horse, and then he'd be followed by his army and his adoring crowd, showing off his strength. And then farther back in the parade, you would see people carrying the spoils of war — the plunder, for all to see. And then who would bring up the rear? Well, it would be the prisoners in chains, forced to march at the back of the line as a sign of their humiliation and their defeat.

These new teachers in Corinth assumed a triumphalistic approach to the Christian life, but they got it all wrong. Paul says it's true that Jesus always leads us in victory, but Jesus leads us in triumph because he has defeated the ultimate enemies of sin, evil, and death. And how did he do it? Jesus wins by losing. He conquers by surrendering his life. He gains power by giving everything away. And if Jesus is the one who is leading this countercultural kind of victory parade, where are you going to find Paul? Where are you going to find the authentic Christian leader? Well, Paul says, you can look for us at the very back. We're the prisoners in chains. Because despite the pain, the suffering, the setbacks, and the difficulties, Paul says that rather than being evidence that God is not on his side, those are the proof that he's captive to Christ — a prisoner to Christ, willing to share in Jesus’ suffering so that he might also share in Jesus' victory, the real victory, the only one that matters.

And so that brings us then to the very heart of the passage. During these Roman triumphs, incense was also burned along the path of the victory route. In that way, people could not only see and hear the spectacle, but they could smell it. You see, you can't see fragrance like perfume, but you can sense it. And Paul is saying that that's the effect that we have on our friends, our neighbors, and our colleagues. As we find our identity and our true source of sense of belonging in Christ, then we become the aroma of Christ. We're called to spread the fragrance of the gospel to a world in need.

Now notice that Paul says that this fragrance is always pleasing to God, regardless of how it's received, but this one fragrance has a different effect on different people. See, Paul says beginning in verse 15, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” So this one fragrance results in two different effects on people depending on who they are. To some it smells like death and they reject it; to others, it smells like life and they receive it. Why is that? Why does it have this polarizing effect?

Let me give you an analogy. And in the interest of sharing one’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities, I will admit to you that when I was a very small child — three or four years old — I was a babysitter's worst nightmare. So if you're a parent and you have a child that suffers from separation anxiety and never wants to go to the nursery, this should serve as a word of comfort and encouragement to you. I was a babysitter's worst nightmare, because when my parents went out on a date or to some kind of party and left us with a babysitter, I would throw a temper tantrum the entire time. I would never let up. I was stubborn, so I was going to throw a temper tantrum the whole way through.

Now, when do you think that temper tantrum started? Do you think I would start throwing a fit as soon as the babysitter arrived? Or maybe as soon as my parents left the house? No. The temper tantrum began as soon as I could smell perfume. As soon as I could smell my mom's perfume, I knew, “Oh no, they're going out, and they're leaving me. They're leaving me at home.” Now think about it. That smell of perfume was the scent of life to my parents. It meant that they were getting out of the house. They were getting some time alone. They were going to go visit friends. But to me, that same fragrance carried the scent of death, because I was stuck at home with the babysitter. Hence the fit began.

But you see, that's what Paul is telling us — that the same scent, the same aroma, will have a different effect on different people. Some may reject it because to them it smells more like a message of death than life. And the tragic irony is that by rejecting the message of the gospel, you're cutting yourself off from the very source of life. You're contributing to your own downfall. It's like shooting yourself in the foot. But on the other hand, if you're spreading the perfume of the gospel, some may receive it because they pick up the scent of life rather than death. And that's what we need in our world today. The scent of death is all around us, and we need to be the carriers of the aroma of Christ.

We're living in a nihilistic moment, in a culture that is losing a shared sense of value and purpose, and this can only lead to spiritual decay, cultural division, and personal degradation. The smell of death is all around us. Now, more than ever, we need to spread the life-giving fragrance of the gospel — the aroma of Christ. But as Paul rightly asks in verse 16, who is sufficient for these things? That is a heavy task. That is a heavy responsibility. Who can bear it? And Paul's answer is: not one of us. Not one of us is sufficient for this task. Not one of us can bear the weight, the responsibility to spread the aroma of Christ to a dying world. We're not sufficient for these things in ourselves, but God's power is made perfect in human weakness. So if we acknowledge our insufficiency — if we acknowledge our weakness and rely solely on Christ's strength and grace — well then he can use us beyond our wildest dreams, because it isn't all up to us. It's all about him and what he's already done for us.

We spread the aroma of Christ because of his finished work, and that's what we celebrate here at this table. Consider this: What was the message of Jesus' life? Jesus didn't send a message of spin but of sincerity. In John 15, Jesus says, “All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” I've held back nothing. I've given you the very Word of Truth, the Word of life. And Jesus didn't communicate a message of hate but of love. I mean, think about it. Jesus was betrayed, denied, and then deserted by all of his friends, and then he was arrested, tortured, and executed by his enemies. Just think what Jesus could have done. He could have nursed a grudge, harbored resentment, allowed a little root of bitterness to spring up in his heart. But he refused to do so, and instead what does he speak? His final words from the cross are, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And that is why Jesus offers us a message of life rather than death.

So let us take that message into our hearts and lives so that we might spread the aroma of Christ — the fragrance of the gospel — to a world that so desperately needs it.

Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you that Paul was willing to share with us the crisis that he faced in his own day, and thank you for the ways in which he models how to choose the way of Jesus, even in chaotic and confusing times. We pray that as we consider Christ and the victory that he has achieved for us through his cross, that you would use us to spread the fragrance of the gospel to our friends, our neighbors, and our colleagues at home, at school, in our book clubs and playgroups. We pray that you would enable more and more people around us to catch the scent of life and to receive that gospel for themselves so that their lives too might be transformed. We ask all this in the strong and powerful name of Jesus. Amen.

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