But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
John wrote his gospel "...that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). This life is inextricably connected to the light Jesus shone in the world (John 1:4). Sadly, most were blinded by His light, so they refused to receive it (John 1:10-11; 3:18-21).
The reception of His light is an exercise in learning. In Ephesians 4:17-19, Paul lamented the futile ways of the Gentiles with their "...understanding darkened…because of the ignorance that is in them..." Conversely, Paul said in vs. 20, "But you have not so learned Christ..." Again in Colossians 1:9-14, Paul intertwines the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of Christ with deliverance from darkness (vs. 13). In short, the way to come to the light and life of the Son is through gaining understanding of Him (cf. Psalms 119:105).
Learning is a difficult, especially in the spiritual realm. We may struggle to open our hearts and minds and embrace previously unknown spiritual truths. Loving Jesus is easy until His will pushes us to abandon our fleshly desires. For this, we must count the cost of learning Jesus lest we become the tower builders who were unable to finish (Luke 14:28-30).
Plato's allegory of the cave is a great illustration of the difficulty of learning. In the story, a group of men have been chained to primitive chairs facing the wall of the cave their entire lives. A fire burned behind them all the time with people bustling about between the fire and the men in the chairs. All these men have known of their world is the shadows which are cast on the walls from the people moving about behind them. For them, this was reality until one day when one of the men was freed from his chair. As he turned to look behind himself, the light of the fire burned his eyes prompting him to swiftly look away. He was blinded by the light. Nonetheless, his new vision was too tantalizing to avoid. He finally pushed past the pain of the light in his eyes and was eventually able to look at the fire.
In amazement, he was led by the hand to the mouth of the cave and out into the broad daylight. This new vision was completely overwhelming as he had never seen anything nearly so bright. He immediately turned and looked to the shadows to avoid the pain of the sun shining in his eyes. Once again, after a little while his eyes adjusted to the brightness of this new reality. His understanding was changed forever, and he could never be satisfied with life in the shadows again. The light of the gospel of Christ often produces a similar effect as our spiritual eyes must adjust to the newly discovered truth. It is difficult to accept at first, but when we embrace it, our previous vision (or lack thereof) will never satisfy again.
In the conclusion of Plato's allegory, the man rushed back into the cave and released the others from their chains in order to share the brilliant view with them. They too were blinded by the light. Sadly, these men hated the light so badly they turned and attacked their liberator and rejected the light he brought to view. This may sound familiar to readers of John’s gospel (John 3:19-21). As we increasingly encounter the light of the Son of God, may we be as the first man who could not bear to look away from the radiant light and pushed through the pain. The end result was his life was illuminated like never before. Whatever we do, we must not allow our hearts to be blinded by His light (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).