Galatians 5:5
Galatians 5:55But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness.
JWs rarely preach from — the verse sits two lines after 5:4's warning that those who seek justification by law have "fallen away from grace," which the Watchtower has no comfortable answer for. When it is cited, the reading is that the "hope of righteousness" is the future reward JWs work toward by loyal organisational service — righteousness treated as something still being earned.
Paul's verb is apekdechometha — "eagerly await, receive out" — the same verb used in for awaiting the redemption of our bodies. Righteousness is something we wait for by the Spirit, not something we generate by effort. The Spirit is the agent, faith is the instrument, and righteousness is the promised end — received, not achieved. Read alongside 5:4: "You who are trying to be justified by law have fallen away from grace." Two verses, one point. The verse undoes the entire Watchtower framework — meeting attendance, field- service hours, organisational compliance — because it locates the believer on the waiting-for side of the ledger, not the working-for side.
The NWT renders pneumati as lowercase "spirit" where ESV, NIV, NASB, and NRSV capitalise "Spirit," treating Paul's phrase as a reference to the Holy Spirit who is the active agent of Christian expectation. Lowercase "spirit" fits the Watchtower's broader depersonalisation of the Spirit into "active force" and obscures that the waiting Paul describes is Spirit-empowered hope, not self-generated optimism.