Matthew 5:41
Matthew 5:4141and if someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
is rarely engaged in JW commentary on the alternative-service question. The Watchtower's policy from the 1940s to 1996 forbade Witnesses from accepting state-compelled civilian service (forestry, hospital work) — even though Jesus is here addressing exactly the Roman practice of angaria, the state's right to compel a civilian into service. The verse is noticed only as a generic principle of going beyond what is required, applied devotionally to interpersonal kindness.
Jesus addresses the precise question the Watchtower forbade: state-compelled civilian service. The Greek angareuō describes Roman authorities pressing civilians into one mile of compulsory service — carrying a soldier's pack, providing transport. Jesus commands compliance and going further, not refusal. Pair with (NWT: authorities "placed in their relative positions by God"). For nearly fifty years, JW young men went to prison rather than accept civilian work — an exact inversion of Jesus's instruction. The 1978 Governing Body vote was 11-5 in favour of allowing alternative service, but a procedural two-thirds majority requirement preserved the policy until the silent reversal in May 1996. Thousands of brothers spent years in prison enforcing a rule Jesus's own words ruled out — and the organisation that finally lifted the rule offered no apology and no acknowledgement of the harm.