The Gospel Eclipsed

“If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 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 4:3-4

I’m sure by now you have had your fill of spiritual analogies of the solar eclipse. An eclipse occurs when the path of the moon crosses the path of the sun, blotting out the light that would naturally be seen. I couldn’t help thinking about this passage and how the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ is veiled from the eyes of unbelievers. Paul’s point is clear, our gospel should be proclaimed and seen by unbelievers, so they have an opportunity to turn to Christ.

How is the gospel veiled? Notice that Paul is saying that it is we Christians who veil the gospel. It is true that the unbeliever’s mind is darkened by sin and their eyes are blinded by the enemy, but it is we who veil the gospel. I am sure there are many ways that this could happen, but several come to mind.

First, our gospel is veiled when it is obscured by an inconsistent life. There is an old saying that I heard often in youth ministry, “Your actions are speaking so loudly I cannot hear the words that you are saying.” There is a lot of truth to this statement. When there is a glaring inconsistency between the message we are sharing and the life we are living, the gospel is veiled. There is a power to our witness when it is backed up by a life wholeheartedly committed to Christ.

Secondly, I think our gospel can also be veiled out of fear of others. Often, the fear of what others might say or what they might think about us causes us to mute our message. We tell ourselves that we will just live the gospel before them and not use our words. The problem is, if you never share Who motivates us to do the things we do, they may think we’re nice people, but they will be no closer to accepting Christ. Mormons, Muslims, and Pagans can often be nice people too. Again, a consistent life of grace is important but without words it doesn’t impact others with the gospel.

Thirdly, sometimes we are afraid to speak because we don’t know what to say or we worry about the possibility that they will ask us a question that we don’t have an answer to. It is important that we understand and can explain the elements of the gospel. If we are not clear in our own mind, we aren’t going to make sense to someone else. On a rare occasion someone might ask us a question we don’t know. If that happens say, “That’s a great question! I don’t have the answer now, but I know there is one. Can I find that out and get back to you?” This doesn’t happen often, but if it does the other person will have more respect for us, not less.

Fourthly, our gospel is veiled when we pretend to have it all together and never struggle with temptation or sin. This may seem odd, but it is off putting to pretend that we don’t have problems and we never struggle. We think to ourselves, if others know I don’t always have it perfectly together they won’t believe the gospel. But the gospel doesn’t say that if a person trusts in Christ God will make him instantly perfect. Quite the opposite, the gospel says Christ needed to pay for our sins because we have never been perfect, and we won’t be perfect this side of heaven. We live consistently but we are not able to live perfectly. That is why we still need Jesus and why they do too. The truth is, as much as we try to hide our struggles and sins, our non-Christians friends already know about them.

Finally, our gospel is veiled when we have misplaced priorities. In other words, sharing the gospel and being used by God to lead people to Christ is not a priority to us. We always find time to talk about the things that are important to us. We weave the conversation to topics that we enjoy and are excited about. We naturally want to tell others about things that have had a huge impact on our lives. Sometimes the gospel is veiled in our lives because our priorities and our conversations are directed towards other things, and we never get around to bringing up Jesus.

The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ was meant to shine through us. Rather than eclipsing that light, our lives and our words ought to magnify it.