Perfume

What kind of perfume do you wear? What about your cologne? Many people have their signature scent, as they have been giving themselves a spritz of the same perfume or cologne for years. When those people walk into a room their smell precedes them; you know they are there because you smell Calvin Klein or Gianni Versace. Sometimes the very thought of your grandmother might cause you to smell her Estée Lauder, even if she has been gone for many years. 

I don’t have a signature scent. At any given time I have a half dozen different bottles of cologne, and I spray on whichever one I grab. I might smell like Cool Water today and Acqua di Gio tomorrow. My cologne doesn’t announce my arrival like it does for others. 

Richard Chenevix Trench, Archbishop of the Church of Ireland in the late 1800’s, once said of Jesus, “Like perfume betrays itself, so He whose name is perfume poured out cannot be hid.” Like a strong perfume, people knew when Jesus was in the area. During His ministry on earth Jesus tried at times to get away so He could pray, spend time with the Father, and just rest from the demands on Him, but He was rarely able to get any alone time. Even when His cousin John the Baptist died and Jesus went off by Himself, there was soon a crowd of maybe twenty-five thousand people wanting to be healed. Perfume betrays itself, and Jesus, whose name is perfume poured out, could never be hidden. 

Jesus is in heaven now, sitting at the right hand of the Father. Even still, like a strong perfume, people can smell Him. As Christians we have the opportunity to give the world a little spritz of the Savior whenever we minister in His name. When the church is impacting its community, people should sniff the air and say, “Jesus must be around here somewhere.” When we love our neighbor as ourselves, those neighbors should have the feeling that they are in the vicinity of our Lord. The good things we do should not be about getting noticed, but about making sure the world knows about the God we serve. 

We let our “light so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).”

Jesus is like a sweet-smelling perfume, and so are we when live the way He told us. Don’t leave the perfume in the bottle; spray it often, and let the world know how good our God is. 

Without Wax

Many years ago when sculpting was a popular form of art, sculptors found a way to rip off their clients even if they made a mistake. If the sculptor accidentally made an error, he was set to lose a lot of money. He couldn’t just hit the backspace button or grab some white out; he would have to scrap part, or even all, of his sculpture and start over. Then someone realized that wax could be melted and used to cover flaws, such as by filling cracks in the sculpture. Once the wax dried the untrained eye could not tell the difference. 

The customer who purchased the sculpture would later find out about the wax. The sun would shine on it, melting the wax and exposing the sculptor’s dishonesty. For that reason, sculptors began to advertise their art as being sine cere, the Latin words for “without wax.” A customer who purchased a sine cere sculpture didn’t have to worry about finding any hidden flaws once he returned home. 

Did you know the Bible tells us to be without wax in our lives? The Latin sine cere was shortened in English into our word sincere. Think about what the Bible tells us to do. In I Timothy 1:5 Paul said his aim was for us to have a sincere faith; in I Peter 1:22 Peter said we need to have a sincere brotherly love; in II Corinthians 11:3 Paul said not to be led astray from our sincere devotion to Christ. There are certainly other passages, but those three indicate that as believers, we should be sincere in our faith, our love, and our devotion to the Lord. 

We need to be without wax. We need to be genuine, not trying to cover up flaws that we want to keep hidden. We need to be the real deal. What people see should be what they get. It might be tempting to try to cover our flaws with wax; we may be able to convince others that our faith, love, and devotion are sincere, but God knows the truth. There is no point in trying to hide our flaws from God. Instead of trying to cover them, let’s work on being genuine. This doesn’t mean we become perfect and free from flaws, it means that we are honest, admitting our shortcomings, and not simply playing a part like an actor. 

Don’t be a con artist when it comes to your faith. Live your life without wax.

The Fireplace

Does your house have a fireplace? Growing up a Floridian in the Sunshine State, we never had a need for a fireplace in our house. I always wanted to have one because there is something special about gathering around the fire. We have one now and I love it. During cold weather it serves as the focal point of our living room. We also have a fire pit outside that is fun to sit around, whether we are making s’mores or just enjoying the warmth. 

The fireplace is something people sit around. It brings not only warmth during cold, but a feeling of warmth as people sit around and talk. There is a sense of togetherness around the fireplace. The Latin word aedes is related to the idea of fireplace, and it is the word that is used to give us the English word edify.

Ephesians 4:29 instructs Christians, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” The manner in which Christians speak is pictured as the same feeling of a family sitting around the fireplace. The word is intended to portray peace and harmony between friends and family. Does that describe your communication? Some people seem to have a penchant for negativity and criticism. Instead of using their words to build up, they use them to tear down. Their pessimism is like throwing water into the fireplace. 

Maybe instead of negativity you tend towards anger. You lose your temper and lash out at people. Perhaps you are known for your crude language and innuendo; you turn everything into an off color joke. This is not fireplace talk. The worst part is when the unsaved world reads the pessimistic, angry, crude, complaining of church members, and they associate that type of speech with our God.

Part of the problem is that the television has replaced the fireplace as the focal point of the living room, and instead of people talking, they listen to other people talk. I am not anti-TV, but most of what people listen to on it is garbage. As we fill our minds with junk, we soon find it coming out of our mouth.  

Paul said to stay away from corrupt (literally “spoiled”) words, and should strive to use only edifying words. Before you speak, ask yourself, “Is this how I should talk? Is this how people talk around the fireplace?” Let your words be seasoned with salt, and speak only that which is edifying. 

Epimenides’ Paradox

Epimenides of Cnossos was a Greek philosopher and poet in the sixth and seventh century before Christ. One of his famous lines is, “All Cretans are liars, evil beasts, always gluttons.” The first half of that assessment has become known as Epimenides’ Paradox because of one little detail: Epimenides was himself a Cretan.

Are all people from Crete liars? What if the person saying that is also from Crete? Can he be trusted? It’s like a person who eats bologna every day telling someone, “You’re full of bologna!” If being full of bologna means someone is lying, can we trust the person who literally full of bologna? 

Professor Thomas Fowler put it like this: "Epimenides the Cretan says that all the Cretans are liars, but Epimenides is himself a Cretan; therefore he is himself a liar. But if he is a liar, what he says is untrue, and consequently, the Cretans are veracious; but Epimenides is a Cretan, and therefore what he says is true; saying the Cretans are liars, Epimenides is himself a liar, and what he says is untrue. Thus we may go on alternately proving that Epimenides and the Cretans are truthful and untruthful."

The reason for bringing up this silly paradox is that it appears in the Bible. Writing to his apprentice Titus, who was ministering in Crete, Paul wrote, “One of them, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith (Titus 1:12-13).” Because Titus was ministering to lying, evil gluttons, he needed to use the Word of God to rebuke them and teach them how to live godly lives.

It may seem harsh, or possibly even racist, that Paul would speak against an entire people group (although technically he is only affirming what one of their own said). Paul’s agreement with Epimenides (“this testimony is true”) is not based on racism, but on the hypocrisy he had personally witnessed. While people like to debate the paradox, Paul viewed the Cretans as liars, not based on them being unable to tell the truth, but because they did not practice what they preached. Notice what he said in verse sixteen: “They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

The Cretans were liars. It wasn’t that they pathologically went around lying to everyone, but they were lying via their actions. They attended church on Sunday and told everyone they knew God, but the way they conducted themselves said otherwise. Their words and actions didn’t match. They were hypocrites, so Paul agreed with Epimenides’ assessment.

Don’t be a liar. If you say you know God, your actions should affirm, not contradict, your words.