Romans 14:5
Romans 14:55One person regards a certain day above the others, while someone else considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
JWs typically read as applying only to first-century Jewish Sabbath disputes, not to present-day "pagan-origin" holidays. Because the Watchtower has ruled that birthdays, Christmas, Easter, and a long list of other observances are forbidden to Jehovah's Witnesses (Reasoning From the Scriptures, pp. 68-70, 176-182), Paul's verdict on day-observance is treated as a narrow Jewish carve-out rather than a standing principle. The NWT's own wording — "let each one be fully convinced in his own mind" — is rarely quoted in connection with Watchtower practice rules.
The NWT at reads: "One man judges one day as above another; another judges one day the same as all others; let each one be fully convinced in his own mind." Verse 6 adds: "The one who observes the day observes it to Jehovah." Three features of Paul's verdict dismantle the Watchtower's extrabiblical canon. First, there is no textual qualifier restricting "day" to Sabbaths — Paul speaks generally of "any day." Second, the decisive test is not the pagan origin of the day but the believer's Godward intention: "to Jehovah." Third, Paul explicitly protects the freedom of individual conscience on exactly the kind of secondary question the Governing Body uses to bind members. then forbids judging a fellow Christian on that question — the precise move the Watchtower makes against members who observe birthdays or holidays. The verse is also decisive in the coerced-compliance argument: Paul's "fully convinced in his own mind" is a freedom the Watchtower's judicial process structurally cannot permit, because a Witness who honestly concludes Paul permits the observance cannot say so at the Kingdom Hall without facing a judicial committee. See birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon, coerced-compliance-vs-virtue, jw-beard-ban, holidays-pagan-origin-engagement.