Here is a post I made over 10 years ago, and a related one I wrote that same year (2016), with some editing. The truth is still applicable. I hope they are helpful. They might be good discussion starters for a family, outreach, or ministry class.
10/01/16 WHAT'S THAT SMELL?
When we lived on the mountain in Tennessee, we used a wood stove for heat in the wintertime. Admittedly, I did not have it vented perfectly, and sometimes, we carried the smell of a fireplace wherever we went. I remember a cashier at the store was serving some of us, and then looked around and asked if something was on fire. hehehe. Really, it did happen.
When I go fishing and have to work with cut bait or old "fresh bait" or old GULPs, my hands take on a certain aroma. My grandchildren have told me (in the past) that my car smelled like fish. Actually, I take pains to eliminate that problem. The fishy smell was rare and light, but you know how over-reactive little children can be.
Whatever you keep your hands in might cause you to carry that smell with you. If your workplace or your living area has a particular odor, you are likely to carry that smell on your clothes. A good washing can remove bodily nastiness, but it takes a spiritual cleansing to take away spiritual filth. It is possible to be nasty for so long that you don't even notice it. It is possible to get beyond the song, "Dirty Me, Dirty Me, I'm Disgusted With Myself."
NOW FOR THE KICKER...
If you live in the light and life of Christ, you will give off a sweet-smelling aroma, but if you allow the filth, garbage, sewage of this world to be your daily habitat, you will stink to high heaven.
2 Corinthians 2:14-15
(14) Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
(15) For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
Don't be rotten fish on a hot day, Don't stink up your world. Let the beauty of Jesus live in you and you will give off the sweet smell of salvation.
A little closer look.
10/02/16 HOW DO YOU SMELL?
What aromatic contribution are you going to make in your world today?
Remember, my previous post addressed the issue of the spiritual aroma of our lives. We will, "give off" whatever fragrance we have, "put on," and we will give off whatever fragrance we have not removed. Sometimes we don't know we are giving off an offensive odor. Sometimes there are people who give off the same odor and the don't smell it on themselves, and maybe they are not offended by your stench because they stink too. But basically no one likes a repugnant pungency, and trust me, folks don't want to sit next to a stinker. There is a washing for the body and there is a washing for the soul.
If we are wearing CRITICISM, we will stink.
If we are wearing ARROGANCE, we will stink.
If we are wearing ANGER, we will stink.
If we are wearing FEAR, we will stink.
If we are wearing WORLDLINESS, we will stink.
If we are wearing SELFISHNESS, we will stink.
If we are wearing WORRY, we will stink.
If we are wearing HATRED, we will stink.
If we are wearing JEALOUSY, we will stink.
If we are wearing ENVY, we will stink.
If we are wearing DECEIT, we will stink.
If we are wearing GREED, we will stink.
If we are wearing Lust, we will stink.
If w are wearing PREJUDICE, we will stink.
If you want to know whether you are giving off any offensive odors, ask someone else. Of course, God and His word is a good place to start, but let's face it, some people are deaf to the voice of God and blind to the written word. However, God uses faithful, wise and loving believers to help others find and follow His will. Find someone with good judgment, honesty, concern. This could (and should) include your pastor, as well as other seasoned saints in the church. Ask them if there are issues in your life that are offensive, then seek God to cleanse you by removing the source of offense and to refresh your presence by covering you with His beauty and sweetness.
Here is how Paul said it...
Ephesians 4:20-32
(20) But ye have not so learned Christ;
(21) If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
(22) That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
(23) And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
(24) And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
(25) Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
(26) Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
(27) Neither give place to the devil.
(28) Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
(29) Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
(30) And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
(31) Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
(32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Colossians 3:1-10
(1) If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
(2) Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
(3) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
(4) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
(5) Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
(6) For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
(7) In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
(8) But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
(9) Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
(10) And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
