2 Corinthians 2:15

Sweet savour. Euōdia, from two words meaning “good” and “smell.” Euōdia is applied to persons or things well pleasing to God (see Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18). In the LXX it is used of the incense in the tabernacle (see Ex. 29:18; Lev. 1:9; 2:2; etc.).

Paul is still thinking of the aroma of incense in the streets of Rome during a triumph, but the figure changes slightly. In 2 Cor. 2:14 the odor represents the knowledge of God, diffused through human representatives. In v. 15 Paul and his fellow ministers constitute the odor of Christ. Christ is the primary medium through which God diffuses the knowledge that is from above; Paul and his fellow ministers are the secondary medium. They become one with Christ, who lives in them (Gal. 2:20) and manifests the fragrance of spiritual things through them.

Are saved. Literally, “are being saved.” Those who are being saved are saved by the grace of Christ; those who are lost are responsible for the loss of their own souls.

To return to the figure of the Roman triumph. Some who marched in the procession were on their way to execution, others to release or triumph. Both groups breathed the perfume as they marched along. To one it was a reminder of death, to the other a reminder of life. So it is with the gospel. To those who accept it, it becomes the pledge of a happy future, but to those who reject it, it becomes a warning of death. The preaching of the gospel never leaves a man in the same state in which it finds him. It either leads him on to eternal life or hardens him so that he rejects life (see on v. 16). It either subdues or hardens, alienates or reconciles. The gospel changes not, it is always the “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16), but those who reject it are condemned by it (see on Matt. 7:21–27; Mark 16:16; John 3:17–21). He who came to be the chief cornerstone of men’s lives becomes “a stone of stumbling” to those who reject Him (1 Peter 2:8).