---
title: Colossians 1:5
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/colossians-1-5/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/colossians-1-5.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Colossians 1:5
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Colossians 1:5

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "You previously heard about this hope through the message of truth of the good news"

## JW Usage

Read as referring to the heavenly hope, which the Watchtower restricts to the 144,000, while the great crowd looks to everlasting life on earth. "The message of truth of the good news" is heard through the organisation's use of "the Truth" for its own body of teaching.

## Protestant Usage

The phrase is the useful part: the message of truth of the good news. Paul attaches "truth" to the gospel — a message — not to a community or an institution. That is the consistent New Testament pattern, and it is worth collecting the references so the point is cumulative rather than assertive. Jesus says "I am the truth" (John 14:6). The Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 15:26, 16:13). And the truth is the gospel message here and at Galatians 2:5 and 2:14, and in John's letters it is what believers walk in (2 John 1:4, 3 John 1:3). A person, the Spirit, and the message. Never an organisation. So when a Witness says they came into the Truth, or that a relative left the Truth, the question is not accusatory — it is simply whether their vocabulary matches the Bible's. Ask what "the truth" refers to in these verses, and let them notice. On the hope stored up in heaven: the letter says it belongs to all the Colossian believers, with no second tier named. Compare Galatians 2:5, 3 John 1:3, 2 John 1:4.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- ['The Truth' Is A Person, Not An Organisation](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/truth-claim-john14-6.md) — John 14:6 / John 14:17 / 1 John 5:20 [Authority]