John 15:5
John 15:55I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.
Read as evidence that branches must remain united with Christ — and in JW practice that union is mediated through ongoing identification with Jehovah's organisation. The NWT's "in union with" rendering reinforces the relational reading: union of allegiance, not ontological abiding.
The Greek is the simple en — "remain in me, and I in him." This is the same mutual-indwelling vocabulary Jesus uses of his relationship with the Father () and of the believer's union with Christ (). The "abiding" is real, ontological, and Spirit-mediated; it is the language of John's whole gospel. Pair with the believer's invitation in ("come to me") and ("Christ lives in me"). The branch is connected directly to the vine. The "without me you can do nothing" is not "without my organisation" — it is the believer's direct dependence on the person of Christ.
The NWT renders the simple Greek "in me" / "in him" as "in union with me" / "in union with him." The expansion is the same paraphrase pattern applied at , ("in connection with the Son"), and elsewhere — softening the New Testament's mutual-indwelling vocabulary into a weaker relational union. The cumulative effect across the Johannine literature is to flatten the ontological abiding-in-Christ doctrine that grounds Reformation soteriology and Pauline union with Christ.