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2 Corinthians 1:11
Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the giftbestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

2 Corinthians 8:16
But thanksbe to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you.

2 Corinthians 9:15
Thanksbe unto God for his unspeakable gift.

which.

Psalm 106:47
Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name,and to triumph in thy praise.

Psalm 148:14
He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints;even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD.

Romans 8:37
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

the savour.

2 Corinthians 2:15,16
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: …

Song of Solomon 1:3
Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy nameis as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

Romans 15:19
Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ
The imagery here is of a Roman triumphal procession, where a victorious general would lead captives through the streets as a display of conquest. Paul uses this metaphor to describe believers as being led by Christ in a victory parade. This suggests that Christians, though once captives to sin, are now captives to Christ, sharing in His victory over sin and death. This aligns with the theme of victory found inRomans 8:37, where believers are described as "more than conquerors" through Christ.

and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him
The metaphor of fragrance is significant in biblical literature, often associated with sacrifices pleasing to God (Exodus 29:18). Here, Paul uses it to describe the spread of the Gospel. The "fragrance" represents the knowledge of Christ, which is spread through the lives and testimonies of believers. This imagery is also found inEphesians 5:2, where Christ's sacrificial love is described as a "fragrant offering." The idea is that the presence and message of Christ are pervasive and influential, impacting all who encounter it.

- Gratitude frames Paul’s entire outlook. Giving thanks is not a courtesy; it is the believer’s constant posture because God’s work is certain (Ephesians 5:20;1 Thessalonians 5:18).

- The thanksgiving comes even while Paul is under pressure (2 Corinthians 1:8-10). Faith looks beyond circumstances to the God who controls them.

- “Always” assures us there is no moment when Christ’s victory fails (Romans 8:37).

- The picture is of a Roman triumphal procession—an unbroken parade of Christ’s victories from the cross onward (Colossians 2:15).

- Our setbacks become stages in His parade. We march behind a Conqueror who has already defeated sin, death, and Satan (Hebrews 2:14-15).

- Believers are willingly conquered. We once served sin (John 8:34), but now we belong to Christ, “having been set free from sin” and “enslaved to God” (Romans 6:22).

- Captivity to Jesus is true freedom because His yoke is easy (Matthew 11:28-30).

- Paul’s own life illustrates this: formerly an enemy, now a bond-slave rejoicing in chains for the gospel (Philippians 1:12-14).

- God’s plan includes ordinary believers as carriers of His triumph. Wherever we go, the procession goes (Acts 1:8).

- “Everywhere” means no boundary—geographical, cultural, or personal—can limit the gospel’s reach (Colossians 1:6).

- We don’t generate the fragrance; we simply walk in step and let Him diffuse it (Matthew 28:19-20).

- Fragrance evokes pleasure and attractiveness. Our lives are to Jesus what costly perfume was in Bethany—“the house was filled with the fragrance” (John 12:3).

- As we know Christ and make Him known, His aroma wafts into every sphere—homes, workplaces, neighborhoods (Ephesians 5:2).

- Some will breathe it as life (2 Corinthians 2:15-16a), others as judgment (2 Corinthians 2:16b), but the scent remains the same: the unmistakable reality of the risen Lord.

2 Corinthians 2:14 celebrates an unbroken victory march led by Christ. God always guides His thankful, willingly captive people in that triumph, using them to diffuse the sweet scent of knowing Jesus everywhere they go. Our role is to stay in His procession, confident that He turns every circumstance into another display of His conquering grace.

Causeth us totriumph.--Better,who always leads us in His triumph. There is absolutely no authority for the factitive meaning given to the verb in the English version. InColossians 2:15, it is translated rightly, "triumphing over them in it." It is obvious, too, that the true rendering gives a much more characteristic thought. It would be unlike St. Paul to speak of himself as the triumphant commander of God's great army. It is altogether like him that he should give God the glory, and own that He, as manifested in Christ, had triumphed, and that Apostle and penitent, the faithful and the rebellious, alike took their place in the procession of that triumph.

The imagery that follows is clearly that of the solemn triumphal procession of a Roman emperor or general. St. Paul, who had not as yet been at Rome, where only such triumphs were celebrated, had, therefore, never seen them, and was writing accordingly from what he had heard from others. Either from the Roman Jews whom he had met at Corinth, many of them slaves or freed-men in the imperial household, or the Roman soldiers and others with whom he came in contact at Philippi, possibly from St. Luke or Clement, he had heard how the conqueror rode along the Via Sacra in his chariot, followed by his troops and prisoners, captive kings and princes, and trophies of victory; how fragrant clouds of incense accompanied his march, rising from fixed altars or wafted from censers; how, at the foot of the Capitoline hill, some of the prisoners, condemned as treacherous or rebellious, were led off to execution, or thrown into the dungeons of the Mamer-tine prison, while others were pardoned and set free. It is not without interest to remember that when St. Paul wrote, the latest triumph at Rome had been that solemnised at Rome by Claudius in honour of the victory of Ostorius over the Britons in A.D. 51, and commemorated by a triumphal arch, the inscription on which is now to be seen in the court-yard of the Barberini Palace at Rome; that in that triumph Caractacus had figured as a prisoner; and that he and his children, spared by the mercy of the emperor, had passed from the ranks of the "lost" to those of the "saved" (Tacit.Ann. xiii. 36). According to a view taken by some writers, Claudia and Linus (2Timothy 4:21) were among those children. (SeeExcursus on the Later Years of St. Paul's Life, at the close of the Acts of the Apostles.

The savour of his knowledge.--There is obviously a reference to the incense which, as in the above description, was an essential part of the triumph of a Roman general. It is there that St. Paul finds an analogue of his own work. He claims to be, as it were, athurifer, an incense-bearer, in the procession of the conqueror. Words, whether of prayer or praise, thanksgiving or preaching, what were they but as incense-clouds bearing to all around, as they were wafted in the air, the tidings that the Conqueror had come? The "savour of his knowledge" is probably "the knowledgeof Him:" that which rests in Him as its object.