1 Peter 5:3
1 Peter 5:33not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Watchtower literature readily affirms ("not lording it over those who are God's inheritance, but becoming examples to the flock") as a warning to local elders against domineering. What is left unexamined is whether the warning also applies upstream — whether eight self-coopted men in Warwick, exercising binding doctrinal authority over 8.5 million Witnesses with no election, no term limits, no lay delegates, and no appeal process, match the "examples to the flock" posture Peter has in view.
Peter is writing to local elders about local flocks — "the flock of God that is under your care" (5:2). The whole paragraph assumes the New Testament shape of distributed, accountable, congregation- facing eldership. Use 5:3 to reframe the "clergy-laity divide" question: the divide is not about salary but about whether ordinary members can correct, vote on, or remove their leaders. Mainline Protestant polities — Methodist General Conferences, Presbyterian sessions and assemblies, Baptist congregational votes — encode that accountability. The Watchtower's Governing Body encodes none of it. Ask gently: which structure better matches Peter's "examples, not lords" standard? The conversation is not "your elders are paid clergy"; it is "what is the accountability line above your local elders, and how does Peter's warning apply to it?"