The Man Who Could Not Smell

Dorcas and I moved to Grantsville, Maryland, in the mid 1970s after being assistant pastors at an Assembly of God Church in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania. We were looking for a church to pastor and while we waited I had gotten a job taking care of senior men at the local nursing home. Back in those days we were called orderlies.

A fine gentleman, an LPN, trained me for the job. A main point was to keep those under your care clean and dry. He asked if my sense of smell was working and I said yes. He went on to explain he had none as a result of holding back a hefty sneeze. So he had to be more active in touch, sight and sound to make sure the residents were fine–and he did his job very well.

Upon hearing of his lost of smell I began to thank God for mine. It is really helpful for work such as that. Depending upon what odor you detect, it could mean the life of someone under your care.

Most of us know our sight and hearing are important, but so are our other senses. Our nose can sometimes detect trouble before our eyes and ears do.

Most important is our spiritual being. Until one surrenders to Christ, the spiritual man* is dead to God and receives garbled signals from the spiritual realm. However, when one truly surrenders to Christ they learn to be directed by God’s Holy Spirit. As Christ resides within, He gives sensitivity and godly direction to our spirit to evaluate and, yes, judge.

While to some that last word might seem in contradiction to Matthew 7:1, that passage is often grabbed out of context oftentimes in discussions to condone sinful actions. The same Greek word (krino) used in Matthew 7:1 for “judge” is used, among other places, in John 7:24 and 1 Corinthians 6:3. Looking at those two alone we can see that judging, evaluation, acceptable to God and actually expected of us by Him is one directed by the Holy Spirit and based upon the written Word. 

Additional Greek words**, some based upon krino, are used for “judge.” When looking at the entire New Testament, some cases whereby a true disciple is expected to judge include, but are not limited to, to separate, select, choose; examine, investigate, question (anakrino); and to separate throughout, discriminate (not meant in the narrow sense used by the world), discern (diakrino).

Like the man who could not smell, too many who name the Name of Christ have held back a sneeze (in the spiritual sense), refusing to do any of the above in sneezing (openly rejecting and rebuking sin {of which see Ephesians 5:11} for fear of man and not of God due to a misunderstanding of Matthew 7:1 and the whole counsel of God in this matter. As a result, they have damaged their spiritual nose, that spiritual defensive mechanism God has given to us.

While there is the specific gift of discerning of spirits, there is a level of discernment every true disciple has, for it is written (1 John 4:1), “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Make use of your spiritual nose.

Notes:

* Used in the traditional sense.

** An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, W.E. Vine: 1966, Fleming H. Revell Company, Old Tappan, NJ; Vol. 2,  pp 279-281

This article will be part of my Bible GemLight series as jasper014.

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