If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Paul effectively says, “You think we are hiding the truth behind a veil, playing games with the Word? If you think it’s hidden then yes, it is hidden from those who are perishing and it wasn’t me or my team who were hiding it. It was Satan. He has blinded the eyes of those who don’t believe so they are not able to see the light of the Good News and therefore don’t understand the message. Any case of unbelief related to Christ is a spiritual matter. The enemy of our souls blinds the eyes of those who can’t see the truth of the gospel. Direct your prayers accordingly. There is also another possibility the person themselves is responsible for their own blindness through wilful disobedience. Seeing they will not see, and hence are confirmed in their own blindness.
Paul adds to these thoughts related to the claim that they have personal agenda they are intent on carrying out. No, he says we don’t have an agenda. We don’t preach ourselves. We preach Christ and ourselves as your servant for His sake. We are not pushing an agenda here. If you remember what he said a few verses earlier (4:2), Paul says “those who are honest know this”. You know us so well. You know our heart motivation. We have been with you so long, don’t you know we don’t play games with the Word of God. We don’t preach about ourselves. We don’t build ourselves up. It is all about building Jesus up and making His name great.
“God said, “Let there be light in the darkness.” When did God say that? What is Paul on about? Come on people put it together. That is an obvious one. There is one very clear time God said that. But Paul is not meaning that here. He is talking about the other darkness. What other darkness? The one hidden in verse four. Well it is not really hidden, just not stated in terms of darkness in that he used the word “blinded”. But the effect is the same. The same God, who spoke into the darkness at creation can and will speak into this darkness, this spiritual darkness due to blinding, and bring light. So we might see the glory of God in Christ.
Bottom line, blindness to the truth about Christ is a spiritual problem. Deal with it accordingly. Pray that God might bring light to those who are blind or remove the blockages to allow them to see. In some case those blockages are of their own doing. It takes some discernment. Go back to 1 Corinthians 12 and ask for the gift of discernment. Do you see how it all fits together? The Bible is one message from one Author but it comes to us in 66 different packages and through 40x/- different authors. The oneness of the message is not just within books but in the whole Bible. It’s really quite amazing.
God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, but He does expect you to be honest.
Bob Gass
Don’t be afraid, darkness cannot put out the Light. It can only make God brighter.
Sidney Mohede