Spiritual Blindness in the Bible

Spiritual blindness is the inability to see and perceive the realities of the kingdom of God. John 9 recounts the healing of the man born blind, but Jesus uses this miracle to teach about the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees: they saw physically, and yet they were blind to the truth of God. The Lord concludes, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth" (John 9:41). 2 Corinthians 4:4 describes how "the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ... should shine unto them." John 12:40, quoting Isaiah, speaks of God who "hath blinded their eyes" because of hardness of heart. Spiritual blindness can strike the unbeliever as well as the believer who has drifted from the Light. Its causes are many: the hardening of the heart (Mark 3:5), pride (John 9:41), and the dominion of the evil one. The most dangerous blindness is the kind that does not know it cannot see: the Pharisees, scholars of the Scriptures, did not recognize the Messiah. Revelation 3:17 addresses this rebuke to the church of Laodicea: "Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." The remedy is to ask God to open our eyes, for Christ alone has the power to give sight to the soul.