Titus 3:1
Titus 3:11Remind the believers to submit to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and ready for every good work,
Watchtower commentary takes 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.
sits alongside and 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. 's "ready for every good work" closes the case Paul opened: lawful civic engagement is part of Christian obedience, not a violation of it.
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.