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?
Where the promise stands
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.
Edward DennettThis 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.
Not two people praying apart
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 Bible TreasuryThe 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.
Agreement as one sound
The word behind "agree" carries a musical picture. That picture shows what this unity must be.
C. H. MackintoshHere 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.
C. H. MackintoshIt 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 smallest possible number
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.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe 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.
What "anything" covers
Wide as the word is, the setting keeps it from becoming a blank cheque for personal wishes.
An Outline of Sound WordsThe 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.
J. N. DarbyThere 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.
Why heaven answers earth
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.
Hamilton SmithHere 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.
Summary
- 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.