"You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."
— Revelation 3:17 (NIV)
One of the most dangerous places a believer can be is spiritually numb—no longer sensitive to sin, no longer able to smell the rot within. Just like a person who lives too long in filth and stops noticing the stench, we can become so accustomed to compromise that it no longer offends us.
Jesus rebukes the church in Laodicea not because they were openly rebellious, but because they were self-deceived. They thought they were fine. But to God, they reeked of spiritual poverty.
Sin Has a Smell—But Only the Humble Notice
Every sin leaves a scent—pride, lust, greed, gossip. But when our hearts harden and our spiritual senses grow dull, we can walk in it for years and not even know we stink. We confuse success with holiness. We settle for appearance instead of purity. We ignore the decay of our private life because everything looks fine on the surface.
But God smells what man cannot see.
"Woe to you... You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean." — Matthew 23:27
The longer we ignore spiritual corruption, the more it spreads.
Application: Ask God to Sharpen Your Senses
The Holy Spirit is like a divine watchdog—alerting us to the stench of sin before it consumes us. But He will not shout if we've trained our hearts to ignore His whispers. Ask Him to restore your sensitivity, to convict you early and keep your soul clean.
Ask yourself:
Have I gone nose-blind to my own sin?
Do I dismiss what I used to confess?
Is there a part of my life that stinks, but I refuse to smell it?
Your soul will never be healed until you acknowledge what's festering.
Prayer for Spiritual Sensitivity
Lord, open my eyes—and my nose—to the places where I've grown cold or compromised. Expose what I've ignored. Cleanse me from the inside out and make me sensitive again to Your Spirit's leading. I don't want to smell good to people—I want to be pleasing to You. In Jesus' name, Amen.