“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have FELLOWSHIP WITH US. And OUR FELLOWSHIP IS WITH THE FATHER AND WITH HIS SON, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our JOY COMPLETE.”
—1 John 1:3, 4.

A community of hearts, bonded through contact with Jesus and with one another, experience “joy” to the fullest! They’re all speaking the same language, the language of love.

Christians become part of an extended family. They become brothers and sisters in Christ since all have a kindred spirit and a kindred nature. The broader the unity of belief, the stronger the ties among Christians. A Seventh-day Adventist youth serving his country as a soldier discovered the value of such ties. He said, “Wherever I went in a foreign country I had friends, even though I really knew no one. I would look up those at our mission stations and I found that our shared beliefs and hopes tied our hearts together. It wasn’t a casual thing; we trusted each other and found a real warmth of fellowship. I was treated like a member of the family in homes where we could speak only a few words to each other.”

The members of the churches established by Jesus’ apostles were bound together by their similar beliefs, their love of God, and their desire to serve Him and share His grace to the world. This close bond of fellowship was one of the reasons this powerless and persecuted minority turned the world upside down.