Romans 6:5-7 reads:
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”

Have you heard the saying birds of a feather flock together? There was a similar saying my mother would tell me in Spanish, that went “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” This is the social proximity effect; this is a principle of how we tend to become like the people we spend the most time with.  We see this in high school, college and even in the workplace and our social groups. We can be defined by the people we chose to surround ourselves with. Sometimes this can determine our trajectory and how we are perceived by others. This could work in our favor or against us.  

As Paul writes this passage of scripture the word that stuck out to me was the fact that we have been UNITED with Christ. We are united with Christ in death, united with him in his resurrection. We died with Him on the cross, our old sinful man was crucified along with Christ. On the third day we also were resurrected with him in newness of life.  All of this is due to our proximity to Christ, we benefit from being united with him. This has freed us from the bondage of sin and death. Our faith in Christ signifies our union with Him in both His death and His resurrection. Just as Christ died and rose again, we too have died to our old sinful selves and have been given new life. This new life is characterized by freedom and righteousness. I would venture to say the proximity we have to Christ is directly proportional to the amount of the “resurrected life” we get to experience.  

What is your proximity to Christ? Are you spending time with Him, in prayer, in meditation, in reading your word? How about those you surround yourself with – are they bringing you closer to Jesus or further away from him?  My prayer is that you would experience the social proximity effect of spending so much time with Jesus that you would be mistaken for being one of his followers just by how you live your life. As a quote that is attributed to St. Francis says, “preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words.” Let your life and proximity to Jesus sanctify you in such a way that the manner in which you live your life would proclaim the Gospel as loudly as you preaching it.  

Remember Jesus loves you and so do I,

Pastor Will