Galatians 6:1
Galatians 6:11Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
JWs are familiar with — "try to readjust such a man in a spirit of mildness" — but the Watchtower's judicial committee system operates differently from Paul's instruction. The 1947 Awake! called excommunication "altogether foreign to Bible teachings" and traced it to pagan origins. Five years later, the organisation adopted disfellowshipping using the same scriptures — a total inversion of position that has separated families for over seventy years.
Paul instructs: "if a man takes some false step before he is aware of it, you who are spiritual try to readjust such a man in a spirit of mildness" (, NWT). The verb "readjust" (katartizete) is the same word used for mending fishing nets — a restorative action, not a punitive one. The biblical model of discipline aims to restore, not to retain through threat of social annihilation. The Watchtower's system disciplines to retain: the September 15, 1981 Watchtower made disassociation shunning identical to disfellow- shipping, eliminating any honourable way to exit. A genuine relationship with God should never require threatening to destroy family relationships if you leave. The fact that there is no honourable exit reveals a system functioning through coercion, not conviction. Second Thessalonians 3:15 confirms: "continue admonishing him as a brother" — a verb that requires the very contact the shunning policy forbids.