---
title: Luke 12:2
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-12-2/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/luke-12-2.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Luke 12:2
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Luke 12:2

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "But there is nothing carefully concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing secret that will not become known."

## JW Usage

Luke 12:2 receives little JW commentary in apologetic publications. Where it appears, it is treated as a general principle that hidden things will eventually come to light at God's judgement, with no specific application to organisational practice. The "Shepherd the Flock of God" elders' manual — which contains the rules governing judicial committees and shunning, and which rank-and-file Witnesses are forbidden to read — is treated as routine internal procedure, not as the kind of secret thing Jesus warns against.

## Protestant Usage

Hold Luke 12:2 alongside John 18:20 (Jesus: "I have spoken nothing in secret") and 2 Corinthians 4:2 (Paul: "we have renounced the shameful underhanded things"). Then ask the Witness whether the Governing Body operates by Jesus's standard. Witnesses can be disfellowshipped and shunned according to procedures laid out in a manual they are forbidden to read. They can be judged by rules they have never seen. The 1997 Watchtower itself said "true religion in no way practises secretiveness." The verse exposes the contradiction: Jesus warned that hidden things would be revealed precisely because hiddenness is incompatible with the way God's truth operates. A church that judges its members by secret rules is not following the pattern of Christ's open ministry.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Shepherd the Flock of God --- The Secret Elders' Manual](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/shepherd-flock-secret-manual.md) — 2 Corinthians 4:2 / John 18:20 / 1 Peter 5:1--3 [Authority]