Truth is an offense to those unwilling to accept its influence. No matter how hard people try to make the Gospel acceptable to an unredeemed culture, the message will eventually become an offense because the truth requires Lordship. 

An attempt to make the Gospel easy to digest for a spiritually confused culture at the expense of truth will weaken the message of the Cross. That weakened message is a worthless message because it conforms us to the image of the world instead of conforming us to the image of Christ. 

Jeremiah wrote, “If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. You must influence them, do not let them influence you!” (Jeremiah 15:19). Paul wrote to the Ephesians about this negative influence when he referenced spiritual maturity, “We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever, they sound like the truth” (4:14). The good words Jeremiah and Paul referred to are words of truth spoken in love. These are words we are called to speak no matter how challenging those words might sound to the hearer or what jeopardy the truth creates in our lives. 

The Apostle Paul referred to this offense when he wrote to the church in Corinth, “Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume” (II Corinthians 2: 14-16).

The container of truth is like the valuable perfume bottle Mary used to anoint the feet of Jesus. It must be opened for the fragrance of God’s truth to be released. At times this is a simple and gentle uncorking. At other times, like the time in which we now live, the bottle may need to be broken for the fragrance to be released because the time is short. Once the fragrance of truth is experienced the stale smell of a compromised message will be cast aside. At that moment, all things are possible.