To the Corinthians Paul wrote, “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” (2 Corinthians 2:14). As previously noted, Paul diffused the sweet smell of salvation in Christ by preaching Christ. As such, one of the “details” of the work of the preacher is to make known the knowledge of God. Hopefully, as preachers we get that and hence we will not belabor that point in this post.

But still, there is another detail of preaching revealed in verse 14. Paul said God’s knowledge was made manifest by him “in every place.” As a preacher our goal should most definitely be to “…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel…” (Mark 16:15). Indeed, “…they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). This passage in Acts seems to indicate more precisely the early Christians “went about” preaching and so it is translated in this way in both the ASV and ESV.

Concerning the Thessalonian Christians Paul wrote, “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing” (1 Thessalonians 1:8). Their message had gone locally but the report regarding the example of their faith had spread to “every place.” They had “…turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9) and folks in even remote locales were hearing of it. In a sense, it is possible to preach by example.

When he wrote to the Romans Paul said, “But now having no more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years to come unto you; whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you…” (Romans 15:23). Note that Paul had so thoroughly evangelized Asia Minor that he had “no more place” there to do his work. He needed some new territory in which to preach! And too, Paul had so thoroughly saturated the area with the sweet savor of the knowledge of God that he needed somewhere else to make that same message known! Perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we have done as good a job as Paul.

Two things we should remember relating to this “detail” of preaching. First, make it your aim to preach the Gospel in every place you possibly can. The good news must go everywhere. Second, make sure that in every place you are making known the knowledge of God. His word never changes. The same message must be preached in every location on the face of the earth. It makes no difference who the hearer may be, God’s message and God’s standards are the same in every place.

May God by you manifest the savor of His knowledge “in every place!”