2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?

“To be sure, his (Paul's) ministry is marked by suffering, but so far from that disqualifying him as a minister, God’s leading him in Christ as a suffering servant thereby legitimates his ministry. 

Christ’s humiliation in crucifixion is reproduced in the life of his servant. 

All that he endures as a preacher is in continuity with the crucified Christ he preaches (5:21; cf. 6:4–10). There is no hiatus between the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of the apostle in a world blinded to God and alienated from God (4:4; 5:18–20). The ‘sufferings of Christ’ do indeed flow over into the apostle’s life (1:5). His ‘weaknesses’ are ‘on behalf of’ Christ (12:10). It is ‘for Jesus’ sake’ that he is their ‘slave’ (4:5), that he is continually being given over to death (4:11)” - Barnett