{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1870","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":15,"verse_to":15},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: The aroma of the knowledge of God comes from Christ and through Christ. The reason why Paul said \"aroma\" was this: Some things are recognized by their smell, even though they are invisible. God, who is invisible, wishes to be understood through Christ. The preaching of Christ reaches our ears just as an aroma reaches our nostrils, bringing God and his only begotten Son right into the midst of his creation. A person who speaks the truth about Christ is just such a good aroma from God, worthy of praise from the one who believes. But one who makes erroneous assertions about Christ has a bad smell to believers and unbelievers alike.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Why, then, if the law is good, is it called a \"ministry of death\"? Because \"sin, that it might be shown to be sin, worked death for me through that which is good.\" Do not marvel when it is said of the preaching of the gospel, \"We are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in them that are being saved and in them who perish, to the one an aroma of life to life, to the other an aroma of death to death.\" Now the law is called a \"ministry of death\" to the Jews, for whom it was written on stone, to symbolize their hardness of heart. But this does not apply to those who fulfill the law in charity. For charity is the fulfillment of the law.<br/><i>— TO SIMPLICIAN—ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.17</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: In a mystical sense, that woman represented us, us, if we return to the Lord with our whole heart after our sins, if we imitate her mourning of penitence. For what is expressed by the ointment except the fragrance of good reputation? Hence Paul also says: \"We are the good fragrance of Christ to God in every place.\" If therefore we do right works by which we spread the fragrance of good reputation upon the Church, what do we pour upon the Lord's body but ointment?<br/><i>— Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 33</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: For as they were saved by means of the blindness of the Egyptians, so are we, too, by that of the Jews; if, indeed, the death of the Lord is the condemnation of those who fastened Him to the cross, and who did not believe His advent, but the salvation of those who believe in Him. For the apostle does also say in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: \"For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them which are saved, and in them which perish: to the one indeed the savour of death unto death, but to the other the savour of life unto life.\" To whom, then, is there the savour of death unto death, unless to those who believe not neither are subject to the Word of God? And who are they that did even then give themselves over to death? Those men, doubtless, who do not believe, nor submit themselves to God. And again, who are they that have been saved and received the inheritance? Those, doubtless, who do believe God, and who have continued in His love; as did Caleb [the son] of Jephunneh and Joshua [the son] of Nun, and innocent children, who have had no sense of evil. But who are they that are saved now, and receive life eternal? Is it not those who love God, and who believe His promises, and who \"in malice have become as little children?\"<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book 4</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved and in them that perish.\"</p><p>Whether, saith he, one be saved or be lost, the Gospel continues to have its proper virtue: and as the light, although it blindeth the weakly, is still light, though causing blindness; and as honey, though it be bitter to those who are diseased, is in its nature sweet; so also is the Gospel of sweet savor, even though some should be lost who believe it not. For not It, but their own perverseness, worketh the perdition. And by this most of all is its sweet savor manifested, by which the corrupt and vicious perish; so that not only by the salvation of the good, but also by the perdition of the wicked is its excellence declared.<br/><i>— Homily 5 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Since both the sun, for this reason most especially that he is exceeding bright, doth wound the eyes of the weak: and the Saviour is \"for the fall and rising again of many,\" but still He continueth to be a Saviour, though ten thousand fall; and His coming brought a sorer punishment upon them that believe not, but still it continueth to be full of healing. Whence also he saith, \"We are unto God a sweet savor;\" that is, 'even though some be lost we continue to be that which we are.' Moreover he said not simply \"a sweet savor,\" but \"unto God.\" And when we are a sweet savor unto God, and He decreeth these things, who shall henceforth gainsay?<br/><i>— Homily 5 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: The expression also, \"sweet savor of Christ,\" appears to me to admit of a double interpretation: for he means either that in dying they offered themselves a sacrifice: or that they were a sweet savor of the death of Christ, as if one should say, this incense is a sweet savor of this victim. The expression then, sweet savor, either signifieth this, or, as I first said, that they are daily sacrificed for Christ's sake.<br/><i>— Homily 5 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Put an altar of incense in your innermost heart. Be a sweet aroma of Christ.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Exodus 9</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: For, as the apostle says, \"We are a good aroma of Christ,\" but he adds, \"To some a fragrance of life to life, but to others an odor of death to death.\" So also the prophetic word is \"a sweet fragrance\" to those who believe, but to the doubting and unbelieving and those who confess that they are Pharaoh's people, it becomes a detestable odor.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Exodus 3</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: The outer man has nostrils, to smell, and by means of them to distinguish fragrance and foul odors; so too the inner man, in order to distinguish the fragrance of righteousness from the stench of sinfulness, has other nostrils. Concerning the fragrance the Apostle teaches us in the words: \"We are the fragrance of Christ to God … among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to some an odor from death and unto death, to others an odor from life and unto life.\"<br/><i>— DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES</i></p><p><b>Pelagius</b>: Paul calls the knowledge of God an aroma. Its presence is sensed rather than seen.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 2</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e10120d3c4851d21fa2b44bb2f4accb4f5956433534a0ce10487699a095e8959","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1870,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"12b3f9945900637efc7720a5b3aec80c13bada5cc4873e62064d7c59c84c5fc4","translator":null,"work":null}