Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 45 · February 14
In the Procession
“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.”
When Rome celebrated a great victory, it held a parade through the city called a triumph. The temples along the route burned incense, so the smell of it filled the streets as the procession passed.
Paul reaches for that parade and puts you in it, though the Bibles on your shelf disagree about where you stand. The King James has God "which always causeth us to triumph in Christ," which puts you in the winner's place. Several modern versions have God leading us as captives in His victory parade, which puts you on foot among the conquered. The Greek verb is the word for leading a triumph, and the person it acts on is normally the one being led. So no argument should rest on that one word.
Stay with the parade itself, which is there in every version. Something is moving through a city, God has set the route, and you are in the line either way. What Paul cares about most is the smell hanging over it all: God "maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place." A savour is a scent.
Then he takes the picture somewhere uncomfortable. "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life." To the crowds, the smell of a triumph meant victory. To the prisoners in chains, it meant the end. Nobody in the procession chooses whose nose they reach.
Notice where Paul was just before this. He had come to Troas, and "a door was opened unto me of the Lord." Yet he could not settle to the work: "I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother." So he left the open door and went on to Macedonia to look for his friend. His thanks to God comes straight out of that restless journey.
This week, as you walk down a street, you will have no way of knowing what drifted off you. To the person you passed, it may have been the scent of life or of death. Either way, the procession is moving through the city, God is the One leading it, and the incense was never yours. It is the fragrance of Christ, and God carries it into every place.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 45 is Never Fails (1 Corinthians 13:8).