---
title: Titus 3:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/titus-3-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/titus-3-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Titus 3:1
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Titus 3:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Remind the believers to submit to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and ready for every good work,

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Continue reminding them to be in subjection and to be obedient to governments and authorities, to be ready for every good work"

## JW Usage

Watchtower commentary takes Titus 3:1 as supporting obedience to civil governments in matters that do not conflict with Jehovah's commands. The "governments and authorities" rendering accommodates the JW framework: Witnesses obey civil law and pay taxes but maintain cosmic neutrality on voting, jury service, military service, and civic engagement.

## Protestant Usage

Titus 3:1 sits alongside Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17 as the New Testament's basic charter for civic obedience. "Be in subjection and obedient to governments and authorities, to be ready for every good work." Notice the second half: "ready for every good work." The citizenship Paul commands is not bare compliance but active engagement in civic good. This works against the alternative-service refusal that the Watchtower required from the 1940s to 1996 — civilian service in hospitals or forestry was civic good work the verse explicitly endorses. The 1978 Governing Body vote 11-5 to change the policy (which one switched vote blocked) shows that the refusal was a human procedural decision, not a biblical command. Titus 3:1's "ready for every good work" closes the case Paul opened: lawful civic engagement is part of Christian obedience, not a violation of it.

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders archais exousiais as "governments and authorities" — consensus reads "rulers and authorities" (ESV) or "principalities and powers" (KJV). Greek archē covers "ruler, beginning, principality"; the NWT's "governments" narrows the term to modern political institutions. The narrowing is consistent with JW literature on Romans 13 / Titus 3 and supports the Watchtower's framing of civic neutrality as obedience to "governments" rather than to broader civic structures.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Alternative Service — 50 Years of Needless Imprisonment](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/alternative-service-refusal.md) — Romans 13:1-7 / Matthew 5:41 — 'If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two' [Authority]