of God, should shine unto them.
In this verse the apostle assigns the reason why those who are lost do not see the truth and excellence of the gospel. It is that the God of this world hath blinded their minds. In whom (ejn oi=v). The relative is used here as implying a cause or reason. ‘Our gospel is hid to them who are lost, because in them,’ etc. See <470306>
3:6. The God of this world, i.e. Satan, who is called the God of this world because of the power which he exercises over the men of the world, and because of the servile obedience which they render to him. They are taken captive by him at his will. <550226>
2 Timothy 2:26. It is not necessary in order that men should serve Satan, and even worship him, that they should intend to do so, or even that they should know that such a being exists. <461020>
1 Corinthians 10:20. It is enough that he actually controls them, and that they fulfill his purposes as implicitly as the good fulfill the will of God. Not to serve God, is to serve Satan. There is no help for it. If Jehovah be not our God, Satan is. He is therefore called the prince of this world. <431231>
John 12:31; <431430>
14:30; Comp. <400408>
Matthew 4:8, 9; <490202>
Ephesians 2:2; <490612>
6:12. This was one of the designations which the Rabbins applied to Satan. The true God, they said, is Deus primus, Satan, Deus secundus. Or as old Calovius said, Diabolus est simia Dei. As the
Arians argued from the fact that Satan is called God of this world, that Christ’s being called God is no proof of his true divinity; and as the Manicheans quoted the passage in favor of their doctrine of two eternal principles, the one good and the other evil, many of the fathers, including even Chrysostom and Augustine, in violation of its obvious construction, make it to mean, “God hath blinded the minds of this world, i.e. of unbelievers.” On which Calvin remarks, we see how far the spirit of controversy can lead men in perverting Scripture. The word God may be used figuratively as well as literally. That we say mammon is the God of the world, or that Paul said of certain men, “their belly is their God,” does not prove that calling Jehovah God is no assertion of his divinity. And as to the Manichean argument, unless it can be shown that when Baal is called God of the Syrians, eternity and self-existence are ascribed to him, it cannot be inferred that these attributes belong to Satan because he is called the God of this world. Satan is said to blind the minds of those that believe not; that is, he exerts such an influence over them as prevents their
apprehending the glory of the gospel. This control of Satan over the human mind, although so effectual, is analogous to the influence of one created intellect over another in other cases, and therefore is perfectly consistent with free agency and responsibility. It should, however, make us feel our danger and need of divine assistance, seeing that we have to contend not only against the influence of evil men, but against the far more powerful influence of the rulers of darkness; the pantocrators of this world. <490612>
Ephesians 6:12. The grammatical construction of this clause is somewhat doubtful. The words are ejn oi=v ejtu>flwse ta< noh>mata tw~n ajpi>stwn. The common explanation makes the genitive tw~n ajpi>stwn, virtually in apposition with ejn oi=v. ‘In whom, i.e. in unbelievers, he had blinded the minds.’ The simple meaning then is ‘The gospel is hid to them who are lost, because Satan hath blinded their eyes.’ The lost and the unbelieving are identical. According to this view unbelief is the effect of the blinding. The same idea is expressed if, according to Fritzsche and Billroth, twn ajpi>stwn be taken proleptically. ‘Whose minds Satan hath blinded so that they believe not.’ Comp. <520313>
1 Thessalonians 3:13, “To establish your hearts unblamable,” i.e. so that they may be unblamable;
and <500321>
Philippians 3:21, (according to the corrected text,) “changed like,”
i.e. changed so as to be like. According to Meyer this would require the accusative, ta< noh>mata a]pista, as the genitive of adjectives taken
substantively is never thus proleptically used. His explanation is,
‘Blinding the eyes of unbelievers is the business of Satan, and this he has done in them who are lost.’ According to this view, blindness does not precede, but follows unbelief. Those who will not believe, Satan blinds so that they cannot see. Comp. <450121>
Romans 1:21, “Their foolish heart was darkened.” Their inexcusable folly was the ground of their judicial
blindness. The doctrine thus taught is one clearly recognized in Scripture.
Those who resist the truth, God gives up to a reprobate mind. <450124>
Romans 1:24, 28. The logical connection, however, is here opposed to this
interpretation. Paul had said that the gospel was hid to the lost. This he accounts for by saying that Satan had blinded their minds. The blindness therefore precedes the unbelief and is the cause of it.
Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. This is both the design and effect of the blindness spoken of. Satan intends by the darkness which he spreads over the minds of men, to prevent their seeing the glory of Christ. Lest the light,
fwtismo>v, a word which does not occur in common Greek, but is used in the Septuagint, <194403>
Psalm 44:3, in the phrase rendered, “in the light of thy countenance,” and <197814>
Psalm 78:14, “He led them all night with a light of fire.” The word therefore signifies the brightness emitted by a radiant body. Of the glorious gospel of Christ, literally, the gospel of the glory of Christ, i.e. that gospel which reveals the glory of Christ. The word do>xhv, glory, is not to be taken as a merely qualifying genitive of eujaggeli>on, gospel. It is the genitive of the object. The glory of Christ is the sum of all the divine and human excellence which is centred in his person, and makes him the radiant point in the universe, the clearest manifestation of God to his creatures, the object of supreme admiration, adoration and love, to all intelligent beings, and especially to his saints. To see this glory is to be saved; for we are thereby transformed into his likeness from glory to glory, <470318>
3:18. Therefore it is that Satan, the great adversary, directs all his energy to prevent men becoming the subjects of that illumination of which the gospel, as the revelation of the glory of Christ, is the source. Who is the image of God, i.e. who being God represents God, so that he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also. <431409>
John 14:9; <431204>
12:4, 5. Christ, as to his divine nature, or as the Logos, is declared to be the brightness of the Father’s glory, <580103>
Hebrews 1:3, to be in the form of God and equal with
God, <501706>
Philippians 2:6, and perhaps also <510115>
Colossians 1:15; but here it is the incarnate Logos, the exalted Son of God clothed in our nature, who is declared to be the image of God, because in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. <510209>
Colossians 2:9.
5. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves