YOU wave to your neighbor as you walk by. Lately, you have noticed that he has been observing you and your family. He waves back and then beckons you over. He says: “May I just ask a question? What is it that makes you people so different?” “What do you mean?” you ask. “Well,” he says, “you are Jehovah’s Witnesses, right? You are not like anybody else. You do not fit in with the other religions​—you don’t celebrate the holidays, and you don’t get involved in politics and wars. None of you smoke. And your family seems to have high moral standards. What is it that makes you people so different in so many ways?”

You know that the answer comes down to one thing: We live under the rulership of God’s Kingdom. As King, Jesus is ever refining us. He is helping us to walk in his footsteps and thus to stand out as different in this wicked world. In this section, we will see how the Messianic Kingdom has been refining God’s people spiritually, morally, and organizationally​—all to Jehovah’s glory.