2 John 10
2 John 1010If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him.
The Watchtower cites "do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him" as a proof text for refusing to greet disfellowshipped persons, extending the instruction to all who leave the organisation — including family members, friends, and those who simply disagree with Watchtower policy. The verse is routinely paired with and as the scriptural basis for the shunning arrangement.
The context is specific: John addresses an itinerant false teacher who "does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh" (2 John 7) — an antichrist figure actively spreading heresy through house churches that served as the teaching venue. The instruction is about not hosting travelling false teachers who deny the incarnation, not about shunning family members or friends who leave a religious organisation. First- century "receiving into your home" meant providing a platform for teaching, since house churches were the only meeting places. Applying this to former members who still profess faith in Christ imports a meaning foreign to the text. The Watchtower's own 1947 Awake! recognised that excommunication-style shunning was "altogether foreign to Bible teachings" — a position reversed without explanation in 1952.