This post was last updated on April 24, 2026

Day 25 (Year 2)

Do Not Let the God of This World Blind Your Mind

… “In whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4 NASB)

Pride makes it difficult for people to understand God’s Word and to trust Him due to Satan’s work and the temptations of this world. But in fact, various riches and things bearing His glory that God originally gave for people to enjoy, such as gold, silver, or the artworks, have instead become tools Satan uses to make them pursue their own glory. They seduce sinners to be self-satisfied and self-sufficient rather than sensing God’s beauty, and fall into Satan’s deception. In this way, the channels through which people experience God have instead been twisted and exploited by the devil to blind their eyes.

The word “blinded” in the verse is the Greek word tuphloo, which also figuratively means “to blunt the mental discernment, or darken the mind.” Contrarily, we must greatly enhance our spiritual discernment to effectively resist the work of the god of this world. We discern among the things received and consider: What is closer to the true light of the glorious gospel of Christ? We must continually and correctly distinguish what is good from bad, right from wrong—even very good things may replace what is best from God—rather than calculating how much benefit is gained; wrong interests, material enjoyment, or even material addictions dull spiritual discernment.

Those whose physical eyes are veiled are often not bothered by intense light. Similarly, the scripture indicates that those whose eyes are blinded resist the true light of Christ because they are not afraid of Christ’s light and may even have no response to Him. If they still have a well-functioning conscience, they know that what they love is precisely what Jesus dislikes. Those who flee from God, like Paul, who persecuted Christians in his early years, are often permitted for a period of time to live in the blindness and darkness. But some people will eventually reach a point where they can no longer accept the blindness and darkness in their hearts. They will be awakened by God and cry out for His salvation, because the poisonous tricks of Satan will eventually be exposed. We must recognize and reject everything Satan uses to blind the eyes of our hearts. Wherever there is an opportunity to help those who desire to have the eyes of their hearts opened, we expose Satan’s schemes of deception and help them remove everything that prevents them from believing in Christ.

Reflection questions:

1) Do you think that focusing on various worldly things can cause people to overlook the true light of Christ’s gospel? If so, what methods can be used to resolve this problem?

2) What is the starting point for resisting Satan’s work of blinding the eyes of people’s hearts?