Summary: How is a Christian suppose to smell? According to Paul, he is to smell sweet and pleasant, like the perfume of God in Christ.

Napoleon and Josephine adored violets. She often wore

the extremely expensive violet scented perfume as her trade

mark. Only the wealthiest people could afford it. When she

died in 1814, Napoleon planted violets at her grave, and just

before his exile to St. Helena he made a pilgrimage to it. He

picked some of the violets and put them in a locket which he

wore around his neck to the end of his life. Here were lovers

who were linked by their noses, and a special fragrance kept

that memory of their love alive even after death.

Solomon would not be surprised by this, for his love song

is filled with the fragrance of love. From the beginning to

the end the nose is playing a prominent role in the romance.

Solomon may not have known that we breathe about 23,000

times a day and move 438 cubic feet of air. He may not have

known that man is capable of detecting over 10,000 different

odors, but Solomon knew that the sense of smell has more to

do with love than most people ever dream of. His love song

is filled with perfume, incense, fragrant spices, flower and

spring garden smells of all kinds, and also the smells of trees,

plants and fruits. I doubt if there are so many references to

romantic smells, in so short a space, in any literature on

earth.

Rather surprising is the fact that the first reference to perfume

refers to the male. In verse 3 the female lover says

pleasing is the fragrance of your perfume. Not only is his

wearing of perfume surprising, but it is plural-perfumes.

The male lover has more than one kind, and he is giving her

multiple pleasant sensations. The mystery is easily solved by

a study of the role of perfume in the ancient world. We use

deodorants, after shave, and cologne today, but we are

conservatives compared to the ancient world where men use

more perfume than women do in our day.

John Trevenar in, The Romantic Story of Scent writes,

"The men of the ancient world were clean and scented."

Keep in mind, we are talking about the Biblical world where

it was hot and dusty, and you could perspire at the drop of a

toga. Smelling good was so much of a part of that world that

we have detailed records of how they perfumed themselves,

and even washed their clothes in perfume. Two of the three

gifts the wise men brought to Jesus were frankincense and

myrrh. These were two of the oldest and most expensive

perfumes in the ancient world. When Mary and Joseph fled

to Egypt they were hot, and Joseph would have used as

much of the perfume as Mary, for it was vital to a man to

smell good.

We could spend hours just looking at the evidence to

confirm the reality of Solomon's song, but let me just share

one paragraph from Diane Ackerman's, A Natural History

Of The Senses, which was published in 1990.

Ancient he-men were heavily perfumed. In a way, strong scents

widened their presence, extended their territory. In the

pre-Greek culture of Crete, athletes anointed themselves with

specific aromatic oils before the games. Greek writers of around 400BC

recommended mint for the arms, thyme for the knees, cinnamon, rose,

or palm oil for the jaws and chest, almond oil for the hands and

feet, and marjoram for the hair and eyebrows. Egyptian men, attending a

dinner party would receive garlands of flowers and their choice of

perfumes at the door. Flower petals would be scattered underfoot,

so they could make a fragrance stir when guests trod on them.

Statues at these banquets often spurted scented water from their several

orifices. Before retiring, a man would crush solid perfume until

it was an oily powder and scatter it onto his bed so that he could

absorb its scent while he slept. Homer describes the obligatory

courtesy of offering visitors a bath and aromatic oils. Alexander

the Great was a lavish user of both perfumes and incense, and was

fond enough of saffron to have his tunics soaked in its

essence.

Her elaborate research has led to dozens of pages of this

kind of information, yet she says, as a world authority on

odors, "The most scent-drenched poem of all times is the

Song of Solomon." This song makes the fragrance of love a

major issue, and Christians who do not heed this revelation

lose a valuable tip. For centuries Christians ignored this

book and did not take it seriously. They developed the idea

that it was worldly to use perfume and smell good. They felt

it was more holy to be dirty. The Puritans did not go that

far, but they did reject perfume as worldly. To this day, the

nose is not honored in romance, and the result is many a

Christian couple damages their love life.

If God says the nose is part of His design for love, who are

we to ignore the Designers plan? In some cultures lovers kiss

with their noses, and their word for kiss means smell. They

get great pleasure in breathing in the odor of the one they

love. In Madagascar they believe that every soul has it own

unique scent. And when they kiss they breathe in that

unique odor of their loved one, and mingle their souls. They

experience a spiritual and physical intimacy. In the

Philippines some have so refined their sense of smell that by

sniffing a pocket handkerchief they can tell if it belongs to

their lover. They send bits of linen to each other when they

are separated so they can keep each other in mind by

inhaling each others scent.

We laugh at nose kissing, but it is because we have little

awareness of the role of the nose in romance. When Ruth

went to meet Boaz and stimulate his interest as taking her as

a wife, her mother-in-law Naomi gave her good advice in

Ruth 3:3. She told her to wash and put on perfume. A bad

impression on the nose is a sure way to quench the spark of

romance. William Erb put it in poetry.

The shades of night were falling

Around us thick and fast:

I stood beside Matilda

The first time and the last.

I tried to give her kisses

According to etiquette,

But she had eaten onions,

Me thinks I smell them yet.

If he kissed you once, will he kiss you again, is not a

modern question. That poem was written in 1897, and

similar thoughts go back into ancient history. On the other

hand, it has also always been true that, "Aroma is beauty,

and beauty is the stimulant to passion." The question, of

course, is what does this obvious truth in the realm of

romance have to do with our religious and spiritual love?

The Bible makes it clear that the nose is important in

religious love, just as it is in the realm of romance. The Jews

were proud of their Semitic noses. Levi Haytha said, "The

Supreme Architect created man with a spout over his mouth,

and it constitutes his beauty and his pride." The nose was

important in the worship of God, and still is to the Jews

today. Zohr wrote, "What would the world do without

fragrance? We would pine away without it, and so we burn

myrtle at the conclusion of the Sabbath."

If we go back to the Old Testament days, we see that the

sacrifices of animals was a major part of their worship. If

you enjoy meat cooking on a grill, then you can imagine the

delicious odors as cattle and sheep were cooked on the altar

by the hundreds and even thousands. The smell was

magnificent. We know this for Scripture indicates that God

enjoyed the smell of the offerings. When Noah left the ark,

and made his sacrifices to God, we read in Gen.8:21, "And

Jehovah smelled the delicious odor and said I will never do it

again." He promised never to destroy the world again with

a flood.

All through the Old Testament sweet and delicious odors

were to fill the temple. Incense was to mingle with the

sweet-smelling offerings. The reason we enjoy a good roast

cooking, and sweet perfume, is because we are made in the

image of God who also delights in pleasant fragrance. He is

the author of sense of smell, and all the fragrant aromas in

the world of nature. He is also the author of the very first

perfume recipe known to man. It was a very exclusive secret

formula to be used in the temple, and for anointing holy

objects, and the priests. The formula and the description of

its uses can be found in Ex. 30:22-28. It was a sacred

formula that could only be used for the special purposes that

God stipulated. Any other use was strictly forbidden.

Worship and pleasant smell were linked together. When

the Jews went after other gods, they would burn incense to

them. They could not conceive of any truly religious love

and devotion without the presence of pleasant fragrance.

There are hundreds of text in Scripture dealing with various

kinds of perfume and aromatic materials. The main point of

it all is, pleasant smell is associated with religious love just as

it is with romantic love. Prov, 27:9 says, "Oil and perfume

rejoice the heart." All relationships are made better with

the presence of pleasant odor.

When we move into the New Testament, we discover that

Paul had a real nose for nice smells. He expressed his thanks

to the Philippians Christians for their support by writing in

Phil. 4:18, "I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus

the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable

and pleasing to God." Paul connected spiritual love, and the

sacrifice of Christ, with a sweet smell in Eph. 5:2. "And

walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a

fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Our great Shepherd

lover was never more fragrant than when he breathed out

His last breath and said, "It is finished." God did not let His

Son see corruption in the tomb. Lazarus was stinking after

four days in the tomb, but no foul odor was permitted to

come upon the body of our Lord. He became, by His death,

the eternal lover, whose fragrance is like that of an eternal

rose.

When Jesus came to the home of Mary and Martha just

shortly before the crucifixion, we read of this unique event in

John 12:3, "Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure

nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with

her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the

ointment." Here was a great act of love, with great

symbolic meaning. Jesus said it was for the day of His

burial. Many other spices and perfumes were put upon the

body of Christ when He was buried, but this event hints that

death would never leave its ugly smell on Christ, for He was

the very embodiment of love and fragrance.

In Him all excellence is found.

His name a fragrance sheds around,

Like that most costly oil of nard,

Which Mary poured upon her Lord.

The Shulamite girl says her lover's name is like perfume

poured out. That is exactly how the church, the Bride of

Christ, feels about Him and His name. Bonar wrote,

I love the name of Jesus,

Immanuel, Christ the Lord,

Like fragrance on the breezes,

His name abroad is poured.

The most significant passage in all the Bible which relates

to smell, love, and the Gospel of Christ, is II. Cor. 2:14-16.

"But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in

triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the

knowledge of Him everywhere. 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." In this

passage Paul links the very issues of heaven and hell to the

nose. To spread the Gospel is to spread the fragrance of the

knowledge of Christ. Has anyone ever told you, you smell

like a Christian? How is a Christian suppose to smell?

According to Paul, he is to smell sweet and pleasant, like the

perfume of God in Christ.

Billy Graham has every one of his counselors put a mint

in their mouth, just as he gives the invitation, for it is hard

to lead a soul to love Christ if you smell like onions, or have

some other foul odor. Religious love is aided by pleasant

smell. Pleasant odor was very important to Paul, for he was

dealing with people in Greek culture, and if you study how

the Greeks love perfume you will understand Paul's concern.

Listen to Antiphones as he describes the bath of an Athenian

man of fashion.

In a large gilded tub he steeps his feet

and legs in rich Egyptian unguents.

His jaws and breast he rubs with thick palm oil,

and both his arms with extract sweet of mint,

his eyebrows and his hair with margoram,

his knees and neck with essence of ground thyme.

Descriptions of a Greek banquet are unbelievable in the

costly perfume used. Xenophones describes an unique

method by which all were showered with it. He slipped

four doves, whose wings were saturate

With scents, all different in kind-these doves,

Wheeling in circles round, let fall upon us

A shower of sweet perfumery, drenching, bathing

Both clothes and furniture and lordlings all.

The Romans were also fanatics for perfume, but time

does not permit us to explore. In a world like that, Christians

had to have a pleasant appeal to the nose of people in order

to win their attention. The pleasant appeal was, of course,

the name of Jesus. His was, and is, the only name on earth

that rid men of the foul odor of sin. All though the Bible the

word stink, and the word stank, are used to describe sin and

its consequences. Hate is linked to a stench in the nostrils.

Every man either stinks before God, because he is a sinner,

and has no deodorant that can cleanse him, or he is like

perfume before God, because by his faith in Christ he has

covered himself with the sweet-smelling sacrifice of the cross.

A rotten breath can hurt romance, and a rotten soul hurts

your relationship with God. Jesus Christ is God's only

remedy for the foul breath of the sinful soul. If you put your

trust in Him you can come out of this foul world smelling

like a rose.