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`SINCERE
WITHOUT OFFENCE'
23
AND
The truth appears to be midway between the two ideas, and indicates that sincerity of mind will influence the
sincerity of person, and that a love that abounds more and more unto knowledge and sense, will never be guilty of
insincerity, but is a person, in whom the glorious doctrine of acceptance has borne fruit.
Coupled with this word `sincere' the apostle uses `and without offence', aproskopos. A is the negative, proskope
is `an occasion of stumbling'. Proskopto, the verb which gives us this word is composed of pros `toward' or
`against' and kopto `to strike'. It is found in the temptation in the wilderness `lest Thou dash Thy foot against a
stone' (Matt.4:6), and of the storm which beat upon the house (Matt. 7:27). In John 11:9,10 it is used of one that
stumbles in the night; in Romans 9:32 of the stumbling of Israel at justification by faith; of the stumbling of a brother
through the uncharitable exercise of liberty (Rom. 14:21), and of those who stumble at the Word (1 Pet. 2:8).
In 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 the apostle seems to give an expansion of an unoffensive spirit, saying, `Giving no
offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed', and then by a series of things that `approve' or `commend' he
amplifies this unoffending attitude: `In much patience (how much offence and stumbling has been caused by
impatience among believers!) in necessities, in distress ` by pureness ` by long suffering ` by love unfeigned `'.
Truly, those who have been made meet, who were chosen to be holy and without blemish are called upon to
walk so worthy that they may be tested by sunlight and found inoffensive, not placing a stumbling block in another's
way, either by over emphasizing liberty or `rights' or by failing to remember that `all lowliness, and meekness,
longsuffering and forbearance' should characterize those who have been `accepted in the Beloved'.
`An odour of a sweet smell' (Phil. 4:18).
During the course of these studies we have gradually passed from the unconditional engracement of the believer
in Christ, as set forth in Ephesians 1:3-14, and summed up in the words `made us accepted in the Beloved', to the
practical outworking of this `acceptance' by `acceptableness', and have arrived at this present point in our argument,
to the passages which use both the word `sweet' and `savour', words that are used in practical contexts, of those who
by nature were odious in the sight of God, rather than a sweet odour in His presence. The words are: Euodia `a
sweet smell' (2 Cor. 2:15; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18), and Osme `an odour' (2 Cor. 2:14,16; Eph. 5:2; Phil. 4:18).
Let us first acquaint ourselves with the meanings of these two words, and then consider the three passages where
they are used. Eu means `well' odia is derived from oda, the perfect middle of ozo `to smell', from which our ozone
is derived. Strangely enough, to those unacquainted with the language the second word osme is derived from the
*
same source, but this time through the perfect passive of ozo, namely osmai. The use of `savour' for that which has
a `smell' is archaic, we use savour to-day, for the quality of taste, and reserve odour for the quality of smell, and this
distinction it is well to keep for the sake of clarity, notwithstanding the physiological fact that taste and smell are
interdependent, as any one who has pinched his nose, in order to facilitate the swallowing of a medicine of bad taste
will know.
The phrase osmen euodias `a sweet smelling odour' is frequently used in the LXX for the Hebrew reach
nichoach `an odour of rest', which is applied to the sacrifices offered both by the patriarchs (Gen.8:21) and under the
law (Lev. 1:9).
The apostle has this sacrificial context in mind, when he wrote Ephesians 5:2 and Philippians 4:18, but in
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 he has another background, drawn, not from the Levitical law, but from the Roman customs
with which his hearers would be most familiar. The Authorised Version reads : `Now thanks be unto God which
*
For detailed examination of this and all similar technical points, the reader is referred to the series entitled
`Ephesia' in The Berean Expositor vols. 31 to 35.