#DailyDevotion The True Light & Life Of The World Is Christ
1 Cor. 4 And so we who by God’s mercy have this service don’t get discouraged. 2But we have renounced the secret ways that anyone should be ashamed of. We don’t use trickery or falsify God’s Word. But by clearly telling the truth we recommend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. 3If the good news we tell is veiled, it is veiled to those who perish, 4whose minds the god of this world has blinded — they don’t believe — to keep them from seeing the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, Who is God’s image. 5You see, we don’t preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as the Lord, and we are your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6God, Who said: “Let light shine out of the dark,” has shone in our hearts to bring you the light of knowing God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Paul, who by God’s mercy has this service of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ doesn’t get discouraged. And why is that? Because of how he ended chapter three, “all of us, reflecting the Lord’s glory in our unveiled faces, are changed from glory to glory to be like Him, as we expect it from the Lord, Who is the Spirit.” He has a hope he latches onto in the midst of discouragement so that he doesn’t get discouraged. He knows where he is going and what he is expecting once he gets there. Similarly, you too keep these promises before your face, in you eyes and in your ears. Your life doesn’t consists of the things of this world but of the next.
Now Paul again picks up the theme of the veil though slightly changed. As he and his companions preach the good news, they don’t use trickery or falsify God’s Word. I guess perhaps some were doing fake miracles to get a following. And it seems some changed the good news to make it more palatable to gain a following. While the Gospel is a mystery it is no longer hidden but openly proclaimed. There are no secrets in Christianity. But it appears the good news is veiled to those who perish. They have been blinded by the god of this world, Satan. He is not a god, but rules over the people of this world since in Adam we turned it over to him with his rebellion against God. He blinds the people of this world so they do not see the light of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Satan poses as an angel of light. He and his disciples among men make it seem as if Christianity is perverse, twisted and darkness. To a twisted mind, it would appear so. For them, down is up and up and down. For them, men can be women and women, men. All the things of this world that people think is freedom is actually bondage and is what bring all the troubles of the world into being. Satan posits our God and Jesus as wrathful, controlling and well mean. I guess if you do what you want to do and damn the results in your life and the lives around you, that may be the case.
Yet in the face of Jesus Christ we see the light and glory of God. Jesus is the image of God. In Christ we see God’s true nature, love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, patience yet he disciplines the children of men when they stray calling them to repentance, not wanting any to perish. The veil has been lifted from you when the Holy Spirit when he made you born from above with the good news of the promise of the glory of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Hearing the promise of glory through faith in Jesus you saw the true light and oriented your life around him instead of the god of this world. Jesus and all he is is our hope for the world to come.
Heavenly Father, always keep the veil removed from our minds that we may see your glory in the face of Jesus and receive it from your loving hand. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.