Bible verses about community

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (12–18 May 2025) is about ​‘the power of community’. But what does that really mean? When you hear the word ​‘community’, what do you think of? Maybe you picture your local neighbourhood, a bunch of friends or a hobby-based group you belong to. 

In churches across the world, you might hear Christians using the word ​‘fellowship’ to describe community. ​‘Fellowship’ is often used to talk about meeting together for church services, prayer meetings, mid-week groups, or other events that mix faith and socialising. It’s also a word mentioned several times in the Bible, describing the early Christian community.

The word ​‘fellowship’ is used to translate the New Testament Greek word koinonia, which refers to a deeply connected group of people that share everything. It’s much more than a social gathering or church meeting. These people in the early Church experienced every up and down of life together, with the solid foundation of a shared faith. Let’s explore a bit more about what examples of community in the Bible look like.

There are many Bible verses about community, so let’s explore just a few, and the themes that they bring up, pointing towards how to create a healthy and flourishing Biblical community.

In the Jewish and early Christian communities, the believers shared material resources to make sure everyone had enough to get by, even storing up a ​‘tithe’ (or 10%) of food, grain, livestock or other goods each household had grown, to take and share between everyone when the harvest was few. As well as eating together regularly, they made sure no one went hungry behind closed doors too.

In the early Church in Acts, there was a huge emphasis on making sure no one was left in a place of need. Community in the Bible looked like sharing with those who were going through difficult times, and valuing ​‘benevolence’, or ​‘doing good’ to one another.

Because the Church is one body of Christ, they understood their collective responsibility for taking care of one another, specifically looking out for the needs of those who didn’t have families, such as widows or orphans, or those in poverty, who had very little material wealth.

One verse about community describes the early Church even collecting financial offerings to send to other churches and Christians facing hardship, such as those in Macedonia and Achaia who sent money to those in Jerusalem:

They did so with joy, knowing that just as the blessings of God had been extended to them, they could extend their blessings to others, serving one another in love and making sure nobody went through hardship unnecessarily.

In Hebrews, we are reminded to that doing good and sharing with others pleases God:

Being in this kind of community means sharing everything for the good of the whole community and everyone in it, even if it comes as a sacrifice to yourself individually.

Another aspect of community in the Bible involved sharing in faith-based practices together.

The early Christians shared communion (the sharing of bread and wine, representing Jesus’ body and blood), just as Jesus had instructed them to do in remembrance of him. They’d sing worship songs and eat together, listening to the teachings of the apostles. They’d even meet daily in the temple courts, and saw eating together as just as spiritual as the elements of a church service – like prayer and worship – that we think of as spiritual practices today:

These regular, shared spiritual practices meant their faith stayed strong even when they were persecuted or faced challenging circumstances. The format of prayer, worship, shared food and communion is something we see carried through into modern churches we see here in the UK – despite an increasingly individualistic culture, the Church’s collective faith helps each believer stand strong, even in the face of adversity.

Interestingly, the word koinonia is also referenced several times throughout scripture to mean communion and community with God. Isn’t it amazing that as we embody what it means to be a Biblical community, we find it’s a reflection of how Christ dwells with – and within – us? Everything shared, nothing withheld. He is fully accessible to us.

Within the early Church community, everyone had their own role: a way they could contribute. They were able to use the gifts God had given them to help improve everyone’s lives. It wasn’t that everyone had a formal role or title, and wasn’t based on valuing one set of skills over another – rather, they acknowledged that everyone had been given individual gifts by the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual gifts given to people by the Spirit included wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, discernment (being able to distinguish between spirits), speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. The believers acknowledged that community in the Bible looked like allowing for each of these to grow in individuals as placed by the Spirit. 

The Apostle Paul, who went round sharing the gospel and became a key figure in building the early Church, also reminded the community that they cannot decide whose contributions are more or less valuable, and that God has given each of us gifts to work together as one. In fact, he goes as far as to say that those parts we’d deem ​‘weaker’ or less needed, we should treat with special honour.

We are all created with different gifts and skills, but we are united by our shared faith and purpose to serve God and each other. Bible verses about community like these really highlight how we are united by our shared compassion and care for one another, and a shared passion for Jesus, both put into action in the form of serving one another. That is what Biblical community looks like.

As well as valuing everyone for their God-given worth, rather than assigning worth based on someone’s ability to contribute in a specific way, the early Church was also an extremely diverse community, filled with Christians from all different cultures and nationalities, male and female, all different ages and social classes.

With the rapid expansion of the gospel message across the world, the good news of Jesus became accessible to more and more people, who joined the body of Christ and this powerful, Biblical community.

In Ephesians, Paul writes:

And in Galatians we read:

These Bible verses about community do not erase the beautiful, God-created diversity of every human being. Instead, they challenge societal norms and break down cultural barriers, urging us to understand that true Biblical community embraces people from every ​‘tribe and tongue’, every social class, gender, age or background. The kingdom of God welcomes everyone, because of Jesus.

And Heaven will look the same, full of an incredibly diverse body of believers, all worshiping the one true God.

In short: community in the Bible was – and continues to be – really important. Made up of the first Christians, the koinonia fellowship of believers is a close-knit community that’s set up for everyone to thrive, just as God designed. A community that’s there for each other, ready to offer practical, emotional and spiritual support, depending on what any person may need.

Everyone was welcomed and valued from a diverse range of backgrounds, status in society, or nationality, and this was demonstrated through people’s actions showing their care.

This is exactly the kind of community the local churches we work with demonstrate every day. They’re visiting people in their homes, sharing the hope of Jesus, and demonstrating his love. They offer compassion, practical help, emotional support and spiritual encouragement, and welcome people into a community that will embrace them for who they are.

Many of those we serve say that before working with their local church-based debt centre, they were anxious, isolated and alone. The impact that a supportive community has is invaluable – it transforms our mental health, helps us rediscover hope, revives our confidence and lets us know that no matter what we go through, we’re never alone.

That’s why we’re passionate about this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme of community – it’s transformative, restorative and part of God’s plan for both the Church and our individual lives.

Whether it’s someone experiencing the love of God after being prayed for for the first time, the burden of shame and isolation being lifted through a cup of tea and a listening ear, or feeling welcomed and accepted by a supportive local church community, our mission-field workers cultivate communities that set people up to thrive, just like the early Church did.