Have you ever wondered about the phrase Jesus uses in Matthew 18:18 about binding and loosing? It seems kind of strange and mystical doesn't it? I have been reading a book titled Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. He quotes this phrase from Matthew 16:19 where Jesus is talking to Peter. Jesus tells Peter (whose name means rock) that on this rock He will build His church in verse 18. What rock is he talking about? Is it referring to Peter, or Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God? Sounds to me like a bit of both, especially noticing the play on words where Jesus states Peter's name before making the statement. Let's get to the hairy part...So Jesus tells Peter He will give him the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever he shall bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever he looses on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
So Rob Bell takes the stand that Jesus is telling not only Peter, but all of His followers, that they have the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. Seeing as the same phrase appears in Matthew 18:18, let's see what it might be referring to in this passage, so we can have some insight into this phrase's meaning...
Verse 15 of Matthew 18 indicates that we are talking about sin here. If your brother sins against you, go reprove him in private, and if he listens, you have won your brother. If he doesn't, take one or two with you so that every word may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If he still refuses to listen, tell it to the church. If he still doesn't listen, he should be treated as a Gentile or tax collector (in other words, not associated with, not accepted in the church). Then he uses this binding and loosing phrase again. What is He saying?Is He referring to the decisions made by the church concerning people or is He referring to the actions of people?Seems that sin is the subject of the passage. More specifically, sin and the church. So what is being said by this phrase?
Looking at this in its context, it seems to me that Jesus is saying that any sin that is bound by the church has already been bound by God, and any sin that is loosed by the church has already been loosed by God. If a person repents, God has forgiven them, and so should we. However, there is another aspect to this. This is speaking to the disciples in THE CHURCH. Those who pretend to be the church may bind something that has not been bound in heaven, and may loose something that has not been loosed in heaven. So how did Rob Bell come to his conclusion?
He sights some excellent cultural background for understanding the language of this passage, but overthinks the interpretation. In those days, Rabbis were well respected teachers of the Tanakh (The Old Testament). Rabbis had what was called a yoke, or a set of interpretations of what the different laws meant. We see this in Jesus' day with the mention of laws that are not in the written Torah, but are part of the Oral Traditions. The permitted acts according to the Rabbi were considered to be loosed, but the forbidden acts were considered to be bound. So Bell takes this to mean we have the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible. Hmmm.
So Jesus came to fulfill the law. He was the Torah in flesh and blood. So why would He give us the authority to bind and loose after He had come to show us what was really to be bound and loosed? He is THE Rabbi, and we can not make new interpretations of the text. We can only discover or come to an understanding of what Jesus showed us. The disciples are called to call other disciples onto the carpet when they sin. They should confront sin and should follow the pattern Jesus gave us in Matthew 18. If the person does not repent, then they should not be considered a disciple again until they have repented. Maybe that person that we thought was a disciple was never really a disciple at all, but a poser, a fraud. Are we to judge that? If we tell someone they are saved, can we tell someone they are going to hell? Do we have the authority to tell someone either way? Maybe I'll talk about that next time. We need to understand the terms "justification" and "regeneration."
Thank you Lord for being in control of your body, the Church. May we always remember that you are our head, and that you are sovereign over us. Thank you Lord for disciplining us through your Church. Amen.
