Matthew 18:18, commentary and pictures

Christ entrusts to the church in every age authority to act in His stead, so that its faithful decisions in discipline among its members are bound or loosed in heaven. The same power to bind and loose spoken to Peter is spoken to all the disciples and to the church afterward, giving Peter no preference, no supremacy over the church, and no ruling power to pass to successors, for Christ alone is head. Heaven ratifies what is bound and loosed on earth only when the church has followed the Bible rule and carried out every instruction Christ gave in the true Christian spirit with the mind of Christ. This requires careful investigation, wisdom, humility, prayer, fairness and patient effort to reclaim the erring rather than hasty or self-directed judgment, and unjust decisions made through prejudice, partiality or pride are of no account in heaven and do not change a person's standing before God. Binding and loosing means remitting or restraining sin by declaring God's Word and by giving or removing censure, not forgiving sin itself which belongs to God alone, and it must be exercised in tender, seeking love for the straying like Christ's own, not in a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage.

Setting in Matthew 18

Matthew 18:18 is part of Christ's instruction for dealing with a church member who has erred and fallen into sin, and for settling misunderstandings and personal injuries between brethren, and that instruction is to be followed carefully. It belongs to Jesus' teaching on addressing a brother's sin and forgiving him, calling for prayerful care in addressing sin, restoring those who err, faith, repentance, and humble obedience to God, bringing relief, courage, and hope. It gives direction for the church's duty toward the erring through an orderly, accountable process rather than leaving individuals to act independently, and applying it requires keeping self under the control of the great Teacher and practicing the teachings of Scripture. If every church member obeyed these words there would be a great change.

The verse belongs to an orderly three-step process: first go to the offender privately alone, then take one or two witnesses to labor and pray with him while keeping the matter as small as possible, then tell it to the church. The charge must be carefully investigated in this process, with wisdom, humility, and prayer rather than hasty removal by personal judgment. Faithfully following these steps helps prevent church trials and supports unity, preventing dissension, misunderstanding, alienation, strife, and bitterness. Spreading reports and suspicion instead of following this order is contrary to the Bible's plan for resolving church difficulties. If he refuses to hear the church he is to be treated as an outsider, as a heathen and a publican, while heaven ratifies what is bound and loosed on earth, with answered prayer and Christ's presence where two or three gather in His name.

The verse stands in a wider chapter that must be read and practiced as a whole, including the call to be converted and become as little children, to receive and not offend or despise the little ones, and to seek the lost sheep. That instruction rules out striving for supremacy and teaches that greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom comes from inward spiritual excellence and true conversion, not position, outward splendor, or authority. It calls for believers to humble themselves before God, turn attention from self, and show sympathy and love to others, especially through personal effort for those outside Christ, with thorough conversion, single-minded purpose, and purity of motive. It must be learned and brought into practical life to enter the kingdom of heaven, urging Christ's followers to read and practice its lessons in humility and to warn against harming believers. Doing the wrongs pointed out in the chapter dishonors God and mars His cause, for Matthew 18 gives principles for disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus to act upon in all cases and under all circumstances.

The chapter is a practical lesson to be hung in the chambers of the mind, read and pondered often, obeyed, and woven into Christian experience and daily practice. Practicing it means obeying God's holy law by loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self, cultivating the garden of the soul under individual stewardship, removing every weed and tare sown through neglect while occupied with weeds in a neighbor's garden, purifying one's own thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ, and not scattering words recklessly without careful consideration of their lodgment and result. It holds educating lessons of high and holy principle especially for those in places of responsibility in training youth, meaning first reforming self, working united under the one head Christ Jesus, hearing and seeing and speaking with sanctified senses, and showing perfect love, compassion, and tenderness toward youth because they are Christ's property. Conversion is required to become laborers together with God, especially by teachers.

Authority Given to Church

The authority to bind and loose is entrusted to the church in every age to act in Christ's stead, and its decisions in discipline among its members are bound or loosed in heaven. It remains in force in all ages as power to act as God's instrument to preserve order and discipline among His people. It delegates power to settle all questions respecting the church's prosperity, purity and order, including the responsibility to keep worthy people in fellowship and to exclude from fellowship those whose unchristlike conduct dishonors the truth and would lead others astray. Whatever the church does in accordance with the directions given in God's Word is ratified in heaven. In grave matters ordained ministers are to submit their part of the work to the church so decisions may be made in unity.

The same power spoken to Peter is spoken to all the disciples and to those who compose the Christian church afterward. Peter was given no preference and no power above the other disciples. No supremacy over the church was given to him, and no supreme power to successors to rule the Christian world was established by these words. The authority first spoken to Peter was applied directly to the church and spoken to the twelve as representatives of all believers, not as a special authority to Peter or to any one disciple above the others. Christ alone is the head of the church, and believers are not to depend on a human leader to dictate what they believe or do.

In this authority the disciples act as ambassadors of heaven, and the results of their work have eternal importance. When they sincerely obey Christ's word He is with them, and heaven joins human effort in drawing lost people to Him. When brethren come together in harmony with His directions, Jesus Himself is a witness to the scene, the whole universe looks on with intense interest, and the Spirit of God moves upon the heart of him who has erred to convict him of his error.

The church is God's delegated authority upon earth in her organized capacity, invested with great power and special authority for the trial of its members. Its counsel, united voice, united opinion, advice and decisions in its capacity as a church are to be respected and obeyed even against personal feelings. The eyes of the church, and the majority of the church, can discern in its individual members what the erring cannot see in themselves, and that collective judgment should guide and control its members. Without respect for its counsel the church is powerless, for God has placed a voice in the church that must control its members, while church discipline and church government are necessary to keep the church from going to fragments and to hold it together as a body. Disregarding or despising its authority is to despise the voice of God, and believers are to heed godly counsel and work in unity rather than despise counsel and reproof or act on individual responsibility in opposition to the judgment of the church.

Conditions for Heaven's Ratification

Heaven ratifies what the church binds and looses on earth only when the church has followed the Bible's rule and the directions Christ gave for handling cases of trial among its members. Whatever the church does in accordance with God's Word is ratified in heaven, and this authority to act in Christ's stead to preserve order and discipline applies in every age. It covers settling questions respecting prosperity, purity, and order, keeping worthy persons in fellowship and excluding those whose unchristlike conduct dishonors the truth and would lead others astray. It gives no license for an individual to set private opinion and judgment in opposition to the judgment of the church.

The promise is conditional, applying then and then only when every instruction and every specification Christ gave has been carried out in the true Christian spirit. Heaven's confirmation rests on the members having the mind of Christ and doing as He would do were He upon the earth. That means following the ordered steps of first speaking privately with the one at fault, then taking one or two more to labor and pray with him while keeping the matter confined to as small a number as possible, then telling it to the church, and only if he persists in his unreasonable course and will not be corrected treating him as a heathen and a publican. When brethren come together in harmony with these directions, Jesus Himself is a witness to the scene, the whole universe looks on with intense interest, and the Spirit moves upon the erring heart to convict of error.

Faithful obedience requires that the charge be carefully investigated and the case carefully considered, with wisdom, humility, prayer, fairness, and patient effort to reclaim the person. Leaders are not to act on personal judgment, zeal, hasty cutting off of names, careless or self-directed judgment, or placing a member under censure without full obedience to the Bible rule. This gives solemn significance to church action and forbids hasty action, requiring private tender effort first, then prayerful work with two or three others if the person will not listen, and only then bringing the matter before the church, while refusing to listen to reports or take up reproach against a neighbor where those steps have not been taken. Going against Christ's orders deserves severe censure, since willful transgression, dishonesty, deception, licentiousness, abuse, selfishness, and bitterness are serious matters for consideration.

Heaven ratifies only just decisions, and many lifted-up decisions heaven cannot ratify. Decisions made unjustly through prejudice, partiality, selfish motives, dislike, pride, lording over brethren, misjudgment, or an unjust judge are of no account in the court of heaven, do not make an innocent person guilty, and do not change character or standing before God. A sentence of condemnation from dislike reflects on the condemner and harms him more than the condemned, so surmisings, suspicions, evil thinking and evil speaking, and cowardly neglect of plain faithful correction are warned against, and strong unity under God's judgment is called for rather than finite man's perverted discernment.

The authority must be exercised by wise representative men truly taught of God who have the inward working of the Holy Spirit, the Christ-life manifested, connection with God, wisdom from above, and spiritual eyesight to discern spiritual things, so their actions receive the endorsement of the head of the church. Human judgment without the Spirit will censure those who should be commended and sustain men worked by a power from beneath. Even so, decisions made in God's work by leaders not close to God can bind or loose in effect as though made under the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and when spiritual discernment is lacking such decisions may wrongly direct or endanger the work.

Scope and Limits of Authority

The authority to bind and loose entrusts the church in every age to act in Christ's stead as His instrument to preserve order and discipline among His people. It delegates power to settle all questions respecting its prosperity, purity, and order. In grave matters ordained ministers are to submit their part of the work to the church, so that decisions may be made in unity.

The church is responsible for keeping worthy persons in fellowship and for excluding from fellowship those who are unworthy and whose unchristlike conduct dishonors the truth and would lead others astray. No officer, committee, or church vote may remove a wrongdoer's name until Christ's instruction has been faithfully followed through private correction, further patient counsel with witnesses, and bringing the matter before the church. When that has been done the church has cleared herself before God. The evil must then be made to appear as it is and must be removed lest it spread more and more, and this preserves the health and purity of the church, that she may stand before God unsullied, clad in the robes of Christ's righteousness.

To bind and to loose means to remit sins or to restrain sins by giving God's message from His Word and by giving and removing censure. Censure is to be removed when the one in error confesses and repents. Persistent wrongdoing must be named and warned against, and the church must not sanction it, while repentant sinners are to be accepted and encouraged.

The church's power to absolve is not power in itself to forgive sins or to remove guilt from any soul. Remission of sins is the prerogative of God alone, and forgiveness comes through Christ. The church declares and acts on what God has said by assuring the repentant sinner of the Saviour's forgiveness and leading that person from guilt and unbelief into faith and righteousness. No delegated servant has power to cast down or destroy. Decisions in trial of members must not rest on one person's judgment or be controlled by prejudice, but require prayerful counsel with faith according to Christ's directions and wisdom.

The church has God-given authority to settle disputes among its members in harmony with Christ's instruction, so Christians should resolve such differences among themselves or through the church rather than in civil courts. The commission to bind and loose is a grave responsibility with consequences in heaven affecting human destiny, so ministers must give themselves wholly to their calling and watch over souls.

Individual Response and Unity

The binding and loosing promised on earth does not license one person to act on individual responsibility, to press chosen views regardless of the judgment of the church, or to set private opinion and personal judgment in opposition to the judgment of the church. The authority belongs to the church in its united capacity as a church, whose united voice is to be respected, and heaven ratifies its discipline of members when it has followed the Bible rule and the directions Christ gave for handling cases of trial. After giving explicit directions for the course to be pursued, Christ declares that what is bound in discipline is bound in heaven and what is loosed is loosed in heaven, so that the highest heavenly authority stands behind discipline exercised according to the Bible rule.

Members are to accept the counsel, advice, and united opinion of the church even against personal feelings, rather than insisting on their own judgment. The eyes of the church can discern in its individual members what the erring cannot see in themselves, and while a few may be as blind as the one in error, the majority of the church is a power that should control its individual members. Want of deference for the opinions of the church brings trouble among brethren, for God has delegated authority to the church on earth and has placed a voice in the church that must control its members, and unless its advice and counsel can be respected it is powerless.

A member should submit to the judgment of the church and not take upon self the responsibility of keeping the church in order, for individuals are not charged with keeping the church in order. Resisting its authority and the judgment of its ministers is a serious matter, since the church's decision in dealing with one who refuses correction, after private labor, witnesses, and telling it to the church, carries authority recognized in heaven, even to treating the unyielding one as outside its fellowship. If the church decides or judges wrongly, God will take hold of the matter in His own time and vindicate the right.

Disregarding or despising the authority God has delegated and entrusted to His church on earth with special authority and power is to despise the voice of God. That trust is no warrant for independent human judgment, so believers are to heed godly counsel and work in unity rather than despise counsel and reproof.

Church discipline and church government are necessary to keep the church from going to fragments and to hold it together as a body. The church is to be united like a well-regulated family, with each member doing part in preserving harmony, and life in union with Christ prepares believers for reunion in the church above.

Spirit of Discipline Practice

Faults that threaten the church must not be ignored, and the one in the wrong must be warned with the aim of saving him from ruin. Correction is soul-saving work to regain the brother and restore those who err and have gone astray, and receiving reproof and turning from a wrong course heals dissension and alienation. It is to be joined with prayer and kindly concern for the person's spiritual welfare, with prayerful care and patient effort to reclaim him rather than hasty accusation or mere separation from the church. Binding and loosing are decisions made in carrying out Christ's directed process of seeking the person privately, then with witnesses if needed, and then bringing the matter to the church if he still refuses to listen.

Church authority must be exercised in the spirit Christ showed in coming to meet humanity and uplift the degraded, fallen, and outcast. It requires tenderness for the little ones whose angels always behold the face of the Father, and seeking love for the one sheep gone astray, because it is the Father's will that not one of the little ones should perish. A masterly spirit that despises one of the little ones and lords it over God's heritage perverts that authority and closes the gates of heaven to men. Those in positions of responsibility must therefore not rule as kings or act as lords, but give wise counsel that protects and strengthens God's people and follow Christ's instruction in dealing with one another. Their authority is not permission for selfishness, impatience, boasting, and overbearing conduct; they are to reject such conduct and set an example others can safely follow.

The instruction rules out striving for supremacy and teaches that greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom comes from inward excellence and true conversion, not position, outward splendor, or authority. It forbids self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity when not asked or appreciated, taking satisfaction in the deficiencies of brethren, letting self come between the soul and God, and inward concealed and outward manifest strife to be first and to have the supremacy. Such unsanctified elements grieve the Saviour, hinder the work, make men who ought to be a blessing a curse that retards instead of advances the work, and keep the Lord from manifesting His power and grace until the soul temple is cleansed, so they must be purged that love for neighbor as self may be practiced. It exposes and rebukes dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, and strife for supremacy and to be highly esteemed by men, and its plain, decided, clear-cut words are to be read to anyone who begins criticism and faultfinding, for such work is expressly the work of the devil. The same work began in the heavenly courts when Satan suggested a change in the government of God, won sympathy and assent, sowed suspicion and distrust of God and of one another, covered his tracks, and started strife and disaffection, until God decisively expelled the disloyal with the instigator for the good of the loyal, and reading this instruction traces out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences. It also forbids harshness, lack of courtesy, and severe, dictatorial dealing that wounds and bruises souls and causes brethren to lose confidence, requiring careful study, transformation in spirit, and purging of a hard, cruel, self-superior spirit so that Jesus Christ can be represented by those who handle sacred things.

Faithfully following the steps of speaking privately first, then bringing one or two witnesses, and finally telling the church, with treating as an outsider only one who refuses to listen to the church, helps prevent church trials and supports unity among believers. It helps prevent dissension, misunderstanding, alienation, strife, and bitterness. Following the rule at the outset can settle matters before they divide the church and keeps small matters from growing into divisive church trials that distract ministers from work among people responding to the truth. Refusing to follow it and refusing to yield over small matters hardens opposing parties and damages the church's work.

Ministers and lay members displease God when they listen to reports of the errors and faults of brethren, spread reports and suspicion, speak evil, scatter words recklessly, or take up a reproach against a neighbor where the prescribed steps of private effort, then tender, humble, meek and loving labor with two or three others, then telling it to the church for action according to the Scriptures, have not been taken. In that case the ear must be closed to complaints. Disregarding the orderly process of seeking to regain the brother in favor of spreading reports and suspicion is contrary to the Bible's plan for resolving church difficulties, and careless reports about another's faults spread evil, cause injustice, and harm the whole church. The solemn significance of church action, whose decisions to bind or loose are ratified in heaven, forbids hasty cutting off of names from the church books or placing a member under censure until the case is investigated and the Bible rule fully obeyed. It calls the church to strong unity under God's judgment rather than finite man's perverted discernment, warning against surmisings, suspicions, evil thinking and evil speaking and cowardly neglect of plain faithful correction. A sentence of condemnation from dislike reflects on the condemner and harms him more than the condemned.

Disregarding the instruction in a dispute and responding with criticism and resentment is wrong and hinders united work. The instruction addresses division among believers and shows that God does not desire anyone to separate from fellow believers.