MATTHEW 18:18 EXPLAINED: WHAT YOU BIND ON EARTH (PART 3)

In the previous episode, I briefly discussed the literary context of the verse that we are dealing with. Now let’s turn our efforts to the verse and we try to answer the question that one of our social media church members asked. Here is what the verse says:

“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.” (Mathew 18:18 NIV).

I have underlined keywords in this text that will help us understand the text without too much hustle. Jesus is speaking to the little ones that believe in him (v.6) and as we saw (in the second episode) they are not little in age but little in social status. So the ‘You’ in the verse applies to the disciples of Jesus Christ and whoever believes in Jesus Christ as opposed to the other established authorities not under his charge though under his name.

The terms of BIND and LOOSE are not original with Jesus but rather Jesus uses an existing language in the rabbinical order of his day. These are technical terms in the religion of Judaism that exclusively applied to the authorities in three domains:

1. The exposition of the Law/Torah,
2. The institutional issues (Temple Cult) and,
3. Public life affairs.

In Judaism, the Scribes, Pharisees and Rabbis determined what the proper interpretation of the Law was. They decided what animal, sacrifice or offering qualified at the Temple service, and it was exclusively upon them to define what a proper sociology was.

Their authority was based on two sources:

1. All that which was written and documented in the Torah (Ten Exodus 20 Apodictic Laws, its 613 Halakhah and thousands of Casuistic laws in the Book of Moses Deuteronomy 31:26) and,
2. Their Personal Judgement (what they saw fit or whatever they wanted).

Jesus uses the terms translated as Bind and Loose in this verse in reference to the first century Judaism practice of ‘asar ve-hittir’ which actually means the power to ‘Permit’ and to ‘Forbid’. Josephus the Jewish historian scholar writes:

“The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. The Pharisees became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind” (Wars of the Jews 1:5:2).

In the days of Jesus, Judaism had the following authoritative sects as categorised:

1. Politically Militant but Religious Sects (The Samaritans=Luke 9:52-56; The Zealots= Acts 5:37),
2. Vocational and Economical Sects (Publicans Mathew 9:9–10; Mathew 21:31–32; Mark 2:15; Scribes) and,
3. Jewish Religious Sects (Scribes; Sadducees = Ezekiel 40:46; Mathew 1:14 The Pharisees = Luke 18:10–12. The Qumran Community and the Essenes =John the Baptist; Nazarenes = Judges 13, Jesus of Nazareth, Acts 24:5).

The well-respected Bible commentator, Adam Clarke writes:

“It is as plain as the sun, by what occurs in numberless places dispersed throughout the Mishna, and from thence commonly used by the later rabbins [rabbis] when they treat of ritual subjects, that binding signified, and was commonly understood by the Jews at that time to be, a declaration that anything was unlawful to be done; and loosing signified, on the contrary, a declaration that anything may be lawfully done. Our Savior spoke to his disciples in a language which they understood.”

According to the Talmud, these sects had the power ‘to bind and to loose’; that is, to forbid and to permit. Besides what was written in the Torah, these individuals from these sects authoritatively permitted and forbade actions at their will.

Jesus uses the Jewish ‘asar ve-hittir’ in two places in the book of Mathew. The first is Mathew 16:19 where a spiritual leader has the authority to permit and to forbid in his decision-making process and the second one is in Mathew 18:18 whose context dictates that it is in one’s power to forgive or not (Vss. 15-17, 21-22; John 20:23).

Two things, however, are categorically distinct in Jesus’ application of the ‘asar ve-hittir’ in the book of Mathew in contrast to the existing Jewish tradition. The first is in the prohibitive subjunctive mood of ‘Hosa Desete’ (whatever you bind/forbid) and ‘Hosa Lusete’ (whatever you lose/Permit).

In Greek, the subjunctive mood primarily refers to HYPOTHETICAL actions and the three tenses in which the subjunctive is used intends Aspect and not time. In other words, the authority to permit or to forbid by man is hypothetical and not actual or even divinely confirmed.

In simple language, the verse does not say that we his believers, disciples and ministers make a decision and God and heaven follows. God does not rubber stamp our will, but instead, the verse warns us that even the hypothetical decision we attempt must be in relation to the established will of God. Jesus in flesh always said and prayed: not my will but thy will (Luke 22:42; John 5:19; Mathew 6:10 John 5:30; John 8:28). He did this to expose the deceit of the authorities of then who baptised their opinions with the name of God.

As our family and Church holy committees sit to decide the fate of either the saint or the sinner, they must understand that all their conclusions are hypothetical, harmful guesswork and disputable wills but not God’s say on the matter. Only God has the final word, not your parents, the Pope and definitely not your Pastor/Church.

Allow me to be bold and say that a church wedding does not necessarily mean that it is God that has bound you together in that matrimony (Mathew 19:3-12).

The second distinctive idea about the ‘asar ve-hittir’ that Jesus presents in Mathew 18:18 is essentially about HYPOCRISY. I used to sit on church boards where the board told an individual to do what themselves could not do but just because they are the authority people struggled with rulings of the district pastor/elder through the church board.

Jesus is not opposed to Leadership, but he detests their hypocrisy:

Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. (Mathew 23:1-4 RSV)

I used to belong to a religion that permitted its people to attend secular universities but forbade them to abide by the rules there. They even forbid students to write their exams on Saturday and when I proved it was not God’s will not to write their exams on Saturday, I was hated by the hypothetical and hypocritical authority.

The authority in Jesus’ day taught that the Sabbath was a day of rest but they bound resting from one’s sickness and problems. Thus, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said,

“…There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath” (Luke 13:14).

I could go on and on but the bottom line is, for us to forbid or to permit anything we must refer to the written word of God (BIBLE), as the first and primary source and in case what we are to decide on is not as clear to us from the Bible then we must be honest with ourselves as we obey the Spirit that dwells in us and does what Jesus would (WWJD) do in such a situation.

The easiest way to know what Jesus would do is to do exactly what we would wish is done to us if we were in that same position ourselves.

God bless you and: THINK about what I am saying. The LORD will help you UNDERSTAND all these things. (2Tim 2:7 NLT)

Pr WHITE
The Gospel Hawker
iTiS Well of Worship Ministries (John 4:24)