Moron Mutual Imprisonment: Binding and Loosing and Church Discipline are Parts of the Same Context, Matthew 18:15-20

The point to be made by this post is really quite simple: Jesus’ statement that the things we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and the things we set loose on earth will be loosed in heaven was made in a very specific context, namely, discipline exercised by the whole church collectively:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. 16 But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. 18 Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

Matthew 18:15-18 (WEB).

When this procedure is followed in the right spirit, its results are binding both on earth and in heaven. God is with us in the result.

But note that the procedure starts with an offended believer and an offender, not with the objective statement of an accusation. It is not a trial. Although the church is involved in the last step–when that step is needed–the procedure is from beginning to end a procedure designed and intended to produce reconciliation between the offender and the offended.

That is why the first step is not a complaint to a church official, as we might expect in modern times. No, the first step involves only the offended believer and the offender. In this procedure, the initiative lies with the offended believer, who is to first go to the offender privately and show the offender their “fault.” On this point, the modern church has largely let exceptions based on the safety of the offended believer eat the rule, allowing this step to be bypassed entirely nearly all of the time. But Jesus did not say that the offender and offended had to be the only people in the room when the conversation happens, only that they should be the only parties to the conversation. The offended brother can take precautions for their own safety by having others nearby, just not listening. This makes the conversation less threatening to the offender, who is, therefore, more likely to listen to what is said and to come into agreement with the offended.

If the offender listens to the offended brother and repents by coming into agreement, then the offended believer “has gained back [their] brother.” Reconciliation occurs. The agreement need not restore everything just as it was before the offense occurred–in fact, it probably won’t–but there is agreement. The offense is forgiven, both parties are released from it, and what they release on earth is also released in heaven. The procedure ended successfully.

The offended believer is to bring other people into the dispute only if no agreement is reached after the first step. At that point, the offended believer brings two or three witnesses along and shows the offender their “fault” again. By implication, if the offender “listens” to the offended one when they come with a few witnesses, repentance occurs, an agreement is reached, and the offended and their witnesses have “gained back [their] brother.” The offense is forgiven and both parties are released from its power. What has been released on earth is also released in heaven. The procedure has ended successfully.

It is only when the first two steps fail that the matter is brought–by the offended believer and their witnesses–before the church. Before the whole church, the procedure is the same–the offender is shown their “fault” and urged to repent and come into agreement with the offended. The focus is on reconciliation, coming into agreement, restoring unity. This focus is likely why Jesus says nothing about situations in which the offended believer has taken offense at something that is not a “sin,” or in which both parties have some “fault.” As long as the offended believer holds an offense against the offender, disunity exists, even if the offense is, objectively, innocent or unimportant. At this stage, also, if the offender “listens” to the church and agreement is reached, the offense is forgiven and both parties are released from its power. God ratifies this result, and the procedure has ended successfully.

If there is agreement at any of these steps the offended believer has “gained back [their] brother.” They have gained back a real “brother,” not an “almost a brother” or a “once was a brother” or a “penitent who is still too dirty/dangerous to be a brother.” While things might not be exactly as they were before the offense, there is equality again. Each member of the Body now has equal concern for all of the other members again. Compare, 1 Corinthians 12:22-26.

It is only when the offender will not “listen” to the church and refuses to reach an agreement with the offended one that the offender is removed from the church. The offender then becomes to the church like any sinner in the world–still a person, still one for whom Christ died, but in need of repentance leading to salvation. Instead of releasing the parties from the offense that separates them, the church binds them both to that offense. And God also ratifies this result, when reached after the full process for seeking reconciliation fails.

However, one very unfortunate result of the failure of this process is that the offended believer also remains bound by the offense, with the painful results suggested by Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Servant–which immediately follows these instructions about discipline/reconciliation in Matthew. These results also follow when the offended believer bypasses the reconciliation steps and simply resolves to treat their offender as if they had already been expelled from the church–or, even worse, as inhuman, invisible or nonexistent (which tends to be the modern approach). The offended believer remains bound by the offense until they forgive the offender, recognizing their humanity and God’s love for them again, and thereby release both parties from the offense.

Note for the uninitiated: “Moron”= “More on.” It is this moronic old fool’s punny way of saying that there is more to be said on the subject.