The minds of the unbelievers

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  2 Corinthians 4:4

I was thinking about KatieLyn one day when this verse came to mind. And this time, instead of focusing so much on the subject of the sentence—the 'Who' did the blinding—I looked more at the object—the 'What' was blinded: the minds of unbelievers.

 I have been somewhat familiar with this verse for many years. I remember discussing it in youth group where we generally felt that "unbelievers" was synonymous with "unsaved." But since that time, I have become a bit more analytical, I view things with a greater sense of retrospect, and I have seen many people who believe God for salvation upon death but who will not believe him in other aspects of life. I figured that a check with the original Greek was in order because KatieLyn has a witness of being saved, but she also seems to be blind to much of the good news that the Lord has prepared for her, such as provision, healing, wisdom, and especially important to this topic, guidance.

Sure enough, ápistos in the Greek lexicon has quite a few meanings other than simply the unbelieving heathen. It can also mean faithless, incredulous, and without trust. And each of those definitions describe KatieLyn, the runaway bride, quite accurately. At some point, she stopped trusting the revelation that the Lord had given her about her husband-to-be. She lost her conviction and was filled with doubt. Her unbelieving mind caused her heart to lose faith. All these definitions fit.

The Lesson
A born-again person can be without faith and trust. Of course, in her present state, she is in no condition for marriage. In that regard, the devil—the god of this world, has scored a victory. But there is another lesson here that deserves a further look, and it links back to the shallow interpretation that was put on this verse in my youth group—the idea that being a saved and born-again believer gave a person immunity from being blinded by the devil. In my next post, I'm going to blow that assumption to smithereens.