Let your light shine

In Matthew 4:16, Jesus commands us to let the light of Christ that is in us shine to those around us. Now Jesus had just spent verses 14 and 15 telling his disciples what light does–it shines. So why does he then need to command us to let our light shine in verse 16. It would be silly for me to tell a lit candle to shine light. That is what a lit candle does. So why Jesus tell us to let our light shine if that is who we are?

Because what Jesus understands is that in our selfishness, you and I have a tendency to not be who we were called to be as believers in Jesus Christ. We have a tendency to hide the very thing that we are – the light of the world.

And there are many reasons why.

It might be because of fear. What would people think if I boldly proclaimed the name of Christ? Or  what if someone asks me a questions I don’t know?

Another reason we don’t let our light shine is because of complacency or indifference or laziness. We know what we should do but we just don’t do it.

Or maybe we believe that proclaiming Christ is for other people. Maybe we think that proclaiming Christ is for people who carry titles like missionary or pastor. Or people who have gifting in evangelism.

There are a lot of reason why we can find ourselves not being or doing the very thing we are called to do. And so Jesus gives us a command – to BE who we are. You are light therefore shine!