Paul digresses, leaving the story of Titus, to discuss his ministry as an apostle proclaiming the Good News.

Optional titles for this lesson might include one or more of the following:

Ministers of the New Covenant

The Nature of the Ministry

           Triumph in Christ

To Some, We Smell Good, To Others, We Stink

This lesson should help us develop a mental picture of who we are in the eyes of God.

This picture does not apply to many of the people who are in ministry today.

This is how Paul pictures his ministry.

            There are certainly lessons for us to learn from Paul’s picture of ministry.

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (NLT)
Ministers of the New Covenant
Triumph in Christ
¹⁴ But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. ¹⁵ Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?
¹⁷ You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.

Examine the scriptures:

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (NLT)
¹⁴ But thank God!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NLT)
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

• Be thankful in all circumstances.

This phrase will become more meaningful as we move through this passage.

We need to be thankful in circumstances that are not of our own choosing.

He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession.

Paul uses a picture of a Roman triumphal procession following a great victorious campaign by a conquering general or king.

This Roman ceremony was called “the triumph”.

After winning a battle, Roman generals marched through the streets of Rome to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill.

This triumphal procession was held to publicly celebrate, honor, and award the success of a military commander who had led Roman forces to victory.

The general wore a crown of laurel and the all-purple, gold-embroidered triumphal toga, clothing that identified him as near-divine or near-kingly,

Some ancient and modern sources suggest a fairly standard processional order.

First came the captive leaders, allies, and soldiers (and sometimes their families) usually walking in chains; some were destined for execution or further display.

Next in line, all on foot, came Rome’s senators and magistrates, followed by the general’s lictors (bodyguards whose task was to protect the magistrates.)  in their red war-robes, their fasces wreathed in laurel, then the general in his four-horse chariot. A companion, or a public slave, might share the chariot with him or, in some cases, his youngest children.

His officers and elder sons rode horseback nearby. His unarmed soldiers followed in togas and laurel crowns, chanting “io triumphe!” and singing ribald songs at their general’s expense.

Somewhere in the procession, two flawless white oxen were led for the sacrifice to Jupiter, garland-decked, and with gilded horns.

Somewhere in the procession, there were pagan priests burning incense to the gods.

At Jupiter’s temple on the Capitoline Hill, he offered sacrifice and the tokens of his victory to the god Jupiter. On some occasions, this included some of the captives who were also put to death as a sacrifice to the Roman gods.

All this was done to the accompaniment of music, clouds of incense, and the strewing of flowers.

Occasionally there was so much on display that the show lasted two or three days.

Verse 14 repeated:

¹⁴ But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession.

• God made us His captives.

We are Christ’s captives.

Through Christ, God the Victor had vanquished His enemies.

We who have been taken captive by Christ, march in His parade.

We live to glorify him through our life and death.

1 Corinthians 4:9 (NLT)
Instead, I sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle to the entire world—to people and angels alike. 

1 Corinthians 4:10-12 (NLT)
¹⁰ Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. ¹¹ Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. ¹² We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. 

Ephesians 3:1 (NLT)
…, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus …

Romans 1:1 (NLT)
This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News.

Galatians 6:17 (NLT)
… For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.

Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. 

In the Roman triumph processional incense was burned. Paul compared this to the knowledge of Christ, which like a fragrance was diffused everywhere throughout the world via the preaching of the gospel.

• God uses His captives to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere.

this gives us a fuller meaning to Romans 12:1

A Living Sacrifice to God
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 

¹⁵ Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.  

¹⁶ To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom.

Repulsive 

But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. 

Attractive

• Our lives are a life-giving perfume to those who are being saved or a dreadful smell of death and doom to those who are perishing.

• Your walk with Christ will be encouraging and motivating to some, and at the same time your walk with Christ will be repulsive to others.

And who is adequate for such a task as this? 

Ephesians 4:1 (NLT)
Unity in the Body
Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 

2 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NLT)
⁵ It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. ⁶ He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. …

What a profound responsibility Paul placed on believers! We are an aroma to the world of life or death. How essential for us to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ in such a way as to bring life. We have God’s promise of victory—He leads us in His procession. We are utterly unequal to the task, but Christ gives us grace and power to evangelize with effect.

• God continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. 

¹⁷ You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit.

Some of Paul’s opponents demanded payment for their ministries.

Many are in ministry just to earn money.

For the moment, however, he recalled the work of the false apostles. They thought themselves more than adequate but it was because their message and motivation differed so radically from Paul’s. To that point, he needed to respond.

We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us. 

1 Timothy 1:17 (NLT)
All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.