But if he will not listen to them, tell it to the assembly; and if also he will not listen to the assembly, let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer.
Matthew 18 gives steps for a wrong done to one believer: go to him alone, then with witnesses, then before the whole assembly. This verse says what happens when he refuses even that, and it raises two questions — which "church" is meant, and what the offended believer must now do.
Humility does not cancel faithfulness about sin.
This spirit of lowliness must not push aside the faithfulness that will maintain the honour of the Lord. Faith and meekness can rebuke sin… Notice in passing how opposite these directions are to the legal spirit in which some would apply this scripture. The object is to win, not to condemn. Every means is exhausted, even to leaving the case in the hands of the assembly.
The word does not point to an office, a hierarchy, or a denomination. It points to the believers gathered in that same town, the ones all three parties belong to.
The church means the assembly of God in the place to which these all belong… So the assembly hears of the guilty person's fault. The matter has been investigated and pressed home. The church warns and pleads with this man, but he refuses to hear.
That also answers those who use the phrase "hear the church" to claim teaching authority:
"Hear the church" in Matthew 18:17 is a favourite appeal for those who look for scriptural support for church pride, or, as they would say, its teaching office. But the context here is plain. It is only a question of local discipline in a case of personal trespass, not of teaching-authority.
The offence that starts all this may be small. What ends the process is not the size of the sin but the hardness of the man. These steps fit a private wrong, not open sin.
The verse before calls him a brother; now he is like a Gentile and a tax collector. We are not to suppose that the man was a drunkard or a thief. What he has shown is a hardness of self-will and a spirit of self-justification. It might have arisen out of small circumstances. But on the ground of this unbending pride about himself and his own fault, God may pronounce that you are to regard him as a Gentile and a tax collector. That is, you no longer acknowledge him as a Christian while he stays impenitent… In the case of drunkenness, or anything of that kind, there would be no need for this way of dealing with it. If no one had the least question about the sin, the duty of the church is clear: the person is put away… This way of dealing is only for a case where the wrong is unknown to anyone but the person it was done against.
Both names the Lord uses marked people a devout Jew kept at a distance.
A Gentile no Jew would admit to any religious privileges (Acts 21:28-29); with a tax collector no Pharisee or scribe would associate. So the offender's position is clear, and what 1 Corinthians 5:13 sets out would be the only course open for the assembly. From how small a beginning such grave results might flow.
The word behind "Gentile" here is used in an unusual way — not as a comment on culture, but on position:
In Matthew 18:17 the word has a particular application: if an offending brother will not hear the church, the instruction is "let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector," that is, as an outsider, the Gentile being outside the privileges of Israel, as one to be avoided.
Commentators differ on how far the verse reaches. Stuart, above, links it to the assembly's action in 1 Corinthians 5. Darby keeps to the exact wording:
This is a question of wrong done to a brother. The passage never says that the church is to put out the one who did the wrong. It says, "Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." This may afterwards have to be the case as to the church, but that is not its character here. It is simply, "Let him be to you" — have nothing more to do with him… What it prescribes is a course of individual conduct.
The Lord guards the line in both directions:
He is the Head of His body, the church, and He is our personal Lord and Master and Saviour. He will not let us raise personal matters into church questions, or lower church questions into personal matters.
This authority does not depend on the size of the gathering.
To accept these is to accept their discipline. The Lord's sanction of the gathering is the express sanction of their discipline… But these "two or three" do have authority for discipline. Woe to anyone who resists its rightful use! The words "if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" apply to just such feeble gatherings as these.
- Aim — The goal is to win the man back, not to condemn him. Every gentler step comes first.
- Assembly — "The church" here is the company of God's people in that place, not a teaching office or a clergy to appeal to.
- Self-will — What forces the final step is not gross sin but unbending pride that refuses correction from anyone.
- Outside — Both names the Lord uses picture a man kept at a distance. You no longer acknowledge him as a Christian while he stays impenitent.
- Personal — The Lord says "to you." Do not inflate personal matters into church questions, or shrink church questions into personal ones.
Verily I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven.
The Lord has been speaking about a straying sheep and a brother who has sinned. Now He moves to the last resort: telling it to the assembly — and then backs that assembly's decision with heaven itself. That raises three questions: who holds this authority, what forgiveness it involves, and how far it reaches.
The Lord spoke these same words earlier to Peter alone. Here the "you" is plural. One writer traces where the authority now rests, and names a limit on it.
When the Lord Jesus spoke these words the Church was still future. In Matthew 16 He speaks of it as a building He would build. Verse 20 describes the make-up of the Church — two or three gathered to His name, and Himself with them in their midst. It is in direct connection with such a gathering that the Lord gives this promise about binding and loosing. So the Church in chapter 18 received the power given to Peter in chapter 16. Peter has passed away, but the assembly remains, and the Lord is with those gathered to His name. It is His presence and His word that gives authority to their acts. Notice that the Lord does not call those so gathered infallible. He says they have authority. Their acts are ratified in heaven.
The pronoun changes from singular to plural here. Both halves matter: the putting out and the taking back.
Verse 18 does not speak directly of assembly action, but it implies it. The word "you" is no longer singular but plural. God fully backs up the assembly when it binds on the offender the guilt of his arrogance. That means putting him away from their fellowship. Loosing matters just as much. If putting away drives the soul in self-judgment to the Lord to find restoration, then the assembly is to be ready to restore him publicly too. Heaven will ratify that as well.
One writer draws a sharp line between what an assembly can do and what only God does.
Do not confuse two things. What the Church binds is bound in heaven, but the Church cannot bind and loose all that Heaven can. What the Church — that is, two or three gathered in Christ's name — binds in the sphere committed to them according to the word, that is sanctioned by Heaven. But the Church has nothing to do with forgiving sins in the sense of not counting guilt, or making a person righteous. This Heaven, that is, God Himself, has done as regards the believer, and the Church can neither bind nor loose it. It has a sphere of discipline in which it forgives or judges, and its righteous acts in that sphere are sanctioned on high.
The promise is not attached to a title or an office, but to a manner of gathering.
If a person was wronged, he was to speak to the wrongdoer and win him if he could. If not, he was to take two or three more. If that failed, he was to tell it — not to the clergy, not to any priest, but to the assembly. If the wrongdoer would not listen to the assembly, the person was free to treat him as outside it. And the reason is given. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, He is there according to this promise. They are really met and looking to Him, so as to act truly and humbly in His name. Then the act carries Christ's authority in ordinary church discipline, and He owns and sanctions it.
One writer weighs the exact words the Lord chose, and finds they reach wider than the assembly that acts.
Notice the Lord did not say, "Whatever you bind in the Church or Assembly shall be bound in heaven." He said, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." This expression "on earth" certainly covers more than the local Assembly where the discipline is carried out. These words of Christ show what follows. When one Assembly acts in discipline in the name of the Lord, that act is binding on all other Assemblies on earth.
Some read the verse as though heaven had already decided and earth only announced it. One writer tested that against the Greek and rejected it, giving his own literal rendering of the words.
In my opinion the grammar gives no ground for taking the participle "bound" as past time, coming before the future verb "shall be." Nor does the scope of our Lord's teaching. The idea is a condition viewed in itself, apart from actual time. "Whatever you may bind on the earth shall be a thing bound in the heavens." The form used here views the result as permanent. But it is beyond doubt the result of a future act.
- Given — the authority first spoken to Peter now rests with those gathered to Christ's name, not with a priest or a clergy class.
- Grounded — it rests on His presence with the two or three, so an act truly done in His name carries His authority.
- Governmental — it binds or looses a person's place in fellowship. It never touches the forgiveness that clears guilt and makes a person righteous, which God alone gives.
- Global — the Lord said "on earth," not "in the assembly," so a right act in one place is to be owned everywhere.
- Guaranteed — earth acts first, then heaven ratifies. Those gathered are not promised to be always right, but heaven backs their righteous acts.