1 Thessalonians 2:13
1 Thessalonians 2:1313And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the true word of God—the word which is now at work in you who believe.
Watchtower literature reads — "when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but, just as it truthfully is, as the word of God" — as evidence that God's speaking continues through an authorised human channel. Paul's statement about the apostolic proclamation is applied analogically to the Governing Body today: what the organisation publishes is to be received "not as the word of men but as the word of God." The February 2017 Watchtower ("Who Is Leading God's People Today?") frames the Governing Body as the modern counterpart to the first-century apostles.
Note carefully what Paul claims and who is doing the claiming. The speaker is an apostle — a man personally commissioned by the risen Christ (; ), authorised to perform "signs of an apostle" (), and a bearer of new revelation (). That apostolic charism is the reason the Thessalonians' reception of Paul's word as God's word is justified. The Governing Body itself concedes in the February 2017 Watchtower (p. 26) that it is "neither inspired nor infallible" and "can err in doctrinal matters." You cannot claim the Thessalonian reception clause without claiming the Thessalonian sender — and the Governing Body has explicitly refused the sender credentials. Paul's line ratifies the apostles' written witness (the New Testament), not a continuing non-inspired council eighteen centuries later. Keep the tone pastoral; the point is that the verse and the 2017 admission cannot both stand.