---
title: Luke 15:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-15-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-15-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 15:1
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 15:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Now all the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to listen to Jesus.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Now all the tax collectors and the sinners kept gathering around him to hear him."

## JW Usage

Luke 15:1 is rarely engaged in JW commentary. The verse sets up the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and prodigal son — parables the Watchtower reads as illustrations of Jehovah's willingness to receive returning sinners through the organisation's reinstatement procedure. The fact that Jesus himself "received sinners and ate with them" before any judicial apparatus existed sits awkwardly with the Watchtower's disfellowshipping practice and is generally not foregrounded.

## Protestant Usage

Hold Luke 15:1 up against Matthew 18:17, the JW proof-text for shunning ("treat him as a man of the nations and a tax collector"). Then ask the Witness how Jesus actually treated tax collectors and sinners. He received them. He ate with them. He went looking for them. The shepherd of Luke 15:4 leaves the ninety-nine and pursues the one that wandered. Jesus's pattern is pursuit, not abandonment. The Watchtower's disfellowshipping practice forbids the rest of the flock from speaking to the wandered one — the inversion of Jesus's command. Pair Luke 15:1 with 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 (Paul commanding the Corinthians to forgive and comfort the disciplined member after his repentance) and Galatians 6:1 ("restore him in a spirit of gentleness"). The biblical model of discipline is restoration; the Watchtower's is permanent social death unless the individual returns on the organisation's terms.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Shunning — The 1947 Reversal](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-1947.md) — Awake! 1947 vs Watchtower 1952 [Authority]
- [No Biblical Warrant for Family Shunning](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-family-no-biblical-warrant.md) — 1 Timothy 5:8 / Luke 15:4–7 / Matthew 9:10–13 [Practice]
- [2024 'Removed' Rebrand — Not Reform](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/2024-removed-rebrand-not-reform.md) — 2 Timothy 3:5 — A form of godliness, denying its power [Authority]
- [Shunned for Belief, Not Behaviour](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-belief-not-behaviour.md) — 1 Corinthians 5:11 lists conduct — not a change of conviction [Practice]
- [The Paramedics Who Refuse to Treat](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shunning-paramedics-analogy.md) — Answering the 'leave it to Jehovah's organisation' illustration [Practice]