v 4 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.
We all tend to look after our eyes, and blindness is something that we dread. I’m astonished that many blind people adjust so well to their condition and seem to lead a pretty full life. But spiritual blindness is something else: for most people it is an unrecognised condition and people learn to live with it as their ‘normal’. Just as a blind person cannot grasp the concept of colour and the beauty of a field of flowers, so someone who is spiritually blind – blinded by Satan – cannot really understand the glorious light of the Good News. It explains why a thoroughly intelligent person can sit unmoved by the finest preachers of the Christian Good News. They are spiritually blind; it is not as though they are mentally dumb or dim-witted, Satan has struck them with blindness. It is a miracle when such a person suddenly sees the light – it is the work of God Himself. This is what we pray for when we long for someone to grasp what faith in Jesus really means. It won’t be our persuasiveness, or even our love – both of which help – it will be a miracle of new birth, new understanding, new life and hope. God wants people involved in the process to issue the challenge, but the work and its power is God’s.
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