Bind or Loose

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

LOOSE OR BIND

Matt 18:18-20

18 "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." 

NIV

Sometimes it is not the right way to garner all or the whole truth of everything Jesus says by slicing and dicing it into little snippets of phrases. Yet to take the whole of his teaching all at once would also be difficult. Yet in some sense he tells his disciples and us certain information in the course of longer dissertations. This is one of those moments. He has been saying various things regarding how we are to act with other believers, especially newer believers. He just told us about forgiving each other for offenses and how to deal with either being offended or being the offender. Now he continues with this idea of whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven as well as whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Within the context of his former words we would have to conclude that as we forgive someone of an offense against us, they have been forgiven in heaven as well. This would then also imply that if we do not forgive them here they will not be forgiven in heaven. That same principle would apply to us if we are the offender. This then is a heaven burden in a sense. We have been given the power or authority to forgive sin. That just does not sound right, for God is the only one who can forgive sins. Yet in the context of going to a brother who has sinned against us and if he does not listen and repent and seek forgiveness we are to take two or three witnesses with us and confront him, in love of course. Now we are also being took that when two of us agree about anything we ask for, it will be done for us by our father in heaven. This could apply to the forgiving of a brothers offense, when we plus the two others go to that brother and we bind his forgiveness it is bound in heaven. Now we can also just take these words as if Jesus were added something else to how we should believe. This would in some sense be taking out of the context of the whole. Yet there is the power of two agreeing. There is the fact Jesus tell us that whenever we agree it will be done for us. There is power in the agreement of believers. However it seems in so many cases that whenever we gather together and join in a group prayer for whatever, we do not necessarily see the results. Why is that? It appears we are all agreeing about what we are praying for, but then maybe we are not all in agreement. Maybe we all have our own personal agenda and are not truly surrendering to the group’s prayer. Maybe we are all so self-concerned we really are not in full complete agreement. Yet it would seem two of us could truly agree on something. This is why when we take a teaching out of context it can get a little convoluted. We would have to conclude that Jesus was continuing his thoughts about forgiving each other. This is in our relationships with each other. Living in a state of forgiveness. If we forgive, we know we will be forgiven, as he taught us in what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. But it would also be right to except that if we bind forgiveness here, it will be bound in heaven as well. If we forgive others, they are forgiven. This may be where one denomination developed the idea of the confession of sins to a priest, and thus received forgiveness from God, from the power invested in the priest to bind that forgiveness. We do not need that one person, as we all have been given the power to bind forgiveness or too loose it. That is if we do not forgive sin against us, it has not been forgiven in heaven as well. That is an awesome responsibility. But in thinking about that, if we do not forgive someone, it might be because we have not resolved that conflict by going to them and talking it over. If they sinned against us, then we need to go and tell them how we feel about what they said or did and give them the opportunity to ask us to forgive them. Then when we do, they are forgiven in heaven as well. But if we do not go to them and allow that offense to go unforgiven, not allowing them to ask us to forgive them, then their offense, their sin has gone unforgiven in heaven. Likewise this applies if we are the offender, if we have sinned against our brother. It appears we hold the key to right relationships between us believers as well as between all of us and the Lord. By not forgiving someone we may well be interfering with their relationship with the Lord. Let is therefore loose all offenses against us, forgiving everyone everything time, never binding their sin around their necks.