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.
Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in [the] heavens.
The promise of answered prayer in Matthew 18:19 sits between two other things. Just before it, the Lord tells His people how to deal with a brother who sins. Just after it, He promises to be present where two or three gather to His name. That setting raises two questions. What is this "agreement"? And how wide is the "anything" we may ask for?
The verse is not a stray saying about prayer. It belongs to a chapter about the assembly and how His people are to act. One writer lists the three things the chapter provides for.
This chapter mentions the assembly, and it provides for three things. First, the question of a brother who wrongs you. Second, the carrying out of discipline — binding and loosing — which God Himself confirms when it is done according to Him. And last, the one that concerns us most here: the condition of prayer that prevails.
Many read the verse as a deal between two believers to pray about the same thing in their separate homes. Writers tie the promise to the next sentence instead. It begins with "For."
The word "For" ties the promise about agreeing in prayer to the presence of Christ among two or three. So it does not mean, as people often suppose, that two Christians agree to pray about the same subject while they are apart. That common use turns the Scripture away from its real point, which is the special honour and power that belong to united prayer.
The word behind "agree" carries a musical picture. That picture shows what this unity must be.
Here we learn that one thing our prayers must have is full agreement — warm agreement — complete oneness of mind. The real force of the words is, "If two of you sound together" — make one common sound. There must be no jarring note, no discordant element.
The same writer turns this into a test we should apply to ourselves rather than to the promise.
It is true — and it is true because Christ has said it — that two people who agree to ask in faith can have whatever they ask. Then why do we not see more answers to our prayers? Must the fault not be in us? Are we not short of agreement and confidence?
The Lord could have named a crowd. He named two. One writer reads that as kindness. He also notes where the promise starts, and that it does not stop there.
The promise stands first of all in connection with the restoring of a brother who sinned. United prayer is first of all needed. Yet the promise is not limited to this. He tells us to ask about anything, and He assures us that the heavenly Father will do it for us… And see how kindly He sets the number as low as it can go: not a hundred, not fifty, not twenty-five — but if two shall agree.
Wide as the word is, the setting keeps it from becoming a blank cheque for personal wishes.
The Father would answer prayer about the interests of Christ on earth. This has nothing to do with people's selfish desires. It is prayer for things tied to the Name of Christ.
Another writer draws the same line from the side of the person praying. When two people settle on a request together, each one has already given up a private preference.
There is the case where any two agree: here the two set their own wills aside. It is where Christians share a desire and agree to bring it to God. Such a settled, open agreement means they share one Christian mind, and it will be done… No one can in faith attach Christ's name to his own selfish desires.
Two verses in a row say that heaven honours what people decide or ask on earth. One writer finds the reason for both in a single fact.
Here we have two statements at first sight so surprising that we may well ask, how can these things be? How can it be that heaven confirms what people do on earth, and grants what they ask on earth? What is it that makes such things possible? One thing alone: the Lord Himself present among His people when they gather to His Name… He is present to confirm their acts. He is present to guide and answer their prayers.
- Setting. The promise sits inside teaching about a wronged brother and assembly discipline. Prayer that prevails is the chapter's third provision, not a saying on its own.
- Together. The word "For" in the next verse ties the promise to people gathered in one place to His name, not to two believers who arrange to pray while apart.
- Symphony. To agree is to make one common sound; where there is a jarring note, the answer cannot be claimed on this ground.
- Scope. "Anything" is wide. Yet it runs along the interests of Christ, because agreeing together has already set self-will aside.
- Ground. One thing alone makes earth's asking work in heaven: the Lord Himself present among the two or three, guiding and answering.
For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.
This promise closes a passage about a believer who sins, about bringing the matter to the church, and about two people agreeing in prayer. It then names the smallest group that still counts as a gathering. Everything turns on two short phrases. What does it mean to gather "in my name"? And what does it mean for Christ to be "among them"?
The distinction below rests on one small word: are people gathered in the name, or to it?
The words are "gathered to My name," not "in it." The difference is clear. To gather in His name means no more than gathering by His authority. To gather to His name means that His name is the centre that unites us. What unites us is the truth of who He is. Where He finds a people who are content with that bond alone, He promises the blessing of His own personal presence among them.
If Christ Himself is the centre, anything placed beside Him moves that centre. That changes how believers meet.
Add anything — a particular teaching, or a particular form of church government — and it is no longer simply the name of Christ. Such a gathering does not match His mind. Suppose I agreed to meet only with believers who share my views. We would not be gathered to the name of Christ alone, because something has been added or shut out. But suppose I meet with people who agree that Christ Himself is the only draw. They accept His authority as Lord. They submit to His word and let it govern everything they do when they meet. Then the gathering is to His name.
Since the promise has an "if" built into it, claiming it is not the same as meeting it.
This shows how vital it is to gather to His name. As we have said, if we ignore the condition, we have no ground for counting on His presence. It is not enough for us to say we have met the condition. The real question is this: does the Lord accept it as met? He is the Judge. So it would be sheer presumption to expect Him among us if we meet according to our own ideas, with no regard for His word.
Two is the smallest number that can meet at all. One writer sees grace in that.
So that He can be with us this way, He has set the terms as low as they could go — "two or three," the fewest that can make a gathering at all. Blessed be His name! We have every reason to own how great that grace is. Our own day is weak and divided, for all its big claims. And those who gather to His name need make no big claims of their own.
For one writer this was not theory but the one thing left standing when everything else collapsed.
For my part, when I found everything in ruins around me, my comfort was this: where two or three are gathered in Christ's name, there He would be. I was not looking for a system of government, or for anything else. Now I do believe that God is faithful, and able to maintain the blessing.
The wording distinguishes between Christ and His name — and that distinction carries a whole situation with it.
We do not gather to Himself, but to His Name. The passage distinguishes between Himself and His Name. Gathering to His name supposes His absence, but secures His presence. In such a gathering He is truly present, not in body, but in spirit... He is present to give sanction to the process of discipline and to give effect to the prayers of His people.
The verse is the ground of the two promises just before it, and writers note who was being addressed.
Notice that the authority for discipline and the power of prayer are both linked with His name, and entrusted to the two or three gathered to that name.
If the promise is true, it should show in ordinary conduct when believers meet.
What all our souls need is a deeper realisation of His presence. It would correct many things that we have to groan over before Him. Would believers turn up late on Sunday if they truly sensed that the Lord is there? To whom are we gathered? Whom do we go to meet?... There would be no rushing, no restlessness, and no showing off — the things that grieve us — if every heart took in the simple but vital fact that the Lord is there.
- The Name gathers. His name is the centre that unites, not just the authority people meet under. What draws them together is the truth of who He is.
- The Name excludes. Add a favourite teaching, a form of church government, or a circle of like-minded friends, and the centre has moved. And the Lord Himself is the judge of whether the condition is met.
- The Name lowers the bar. He set the terms as low as they could go — two or three — so that weakness and small numbers are no barrier to His presence.
- The Name secures Him. Gathering to a name assumes He is not here in body. The promise is that He is present among them, backing discipline and giving effect to prayer.
- The Name changes behaviour. If He is truly there, lateness, rushing and showing off cannot survive the thought of whom we have come to meet.