While the Lord years ago told me to learn to "think with the heart" in matters of my faith and love of Him and what lay ahead in my spiritual life, church, and understanding His will, my late dad was sent several years ago to deliver three messages, one being the reminder to "use your head." Reading and meditating upon His Living Word requires both the head and the heart for wise and also faithful understanding of what exactly Jesus teaches and states.
The use of the Scripture in Matthew 16:19 has been twisted somewhat over the centuries and by humankind to fit with certain narratives or objectives including even that this verse is the basis for sacramental confession or now termed the Sacrament of Reconciliation, including specified format to be used by priest and penitent. But it is good to consider this Scripture without using it to justify or create a meaning that is not actually present, nor was over 2100 years ago. Even though the sacramental rite or action of confession in the Catholic Church has its benefits on various levels, this Scripture as in all Scripture is best understood as it is, without embellishment or projection that simply is not inherent.
I found these commentaries to be helpful in understanding what Jesus means in Matthew 16:19, and specifically what it is to bind and loose. The reality of Jesus' words have greater impact when grasped unaltered and unadorned with other motives or intentions than what simply Jesus was stating and meant in context, for all time. Truth, beauty, goodness--Jesus Himself is the way, the truth, and the life. Think with the heart yet do not discard using the minds God gave us to seek reason, fact, and truth. His Living Word most often is simple and direct as well as has context with the time period in which Jesus lived as God man among us on this earth, yet with on-going truth and wisdom.
Enjoy the following three commentaries of many, each with same clarity of fact and quickly found with the ease of research we have so accessible to us today. I found the information quite helpful in understanding what Jesus meant and means by "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
This passage has caused a lot of confusion and misinterpretation of the meaning of binding and loosing. Some use this verse to bind satan or loose a person from demonic bondage. Others tend to use this verse to say that you can make things happen according to God’s power entrusted to us through prayers. Yet others use this verse to say that Peter was the first pope. But what is the correct interpretation?
Jesus did give the apostles the authority to cast out demons (Matthew 10:1, Mark 3:14-15, Acts 16:16-18), but this is not what this verse is about. Binding and loosing is a Jewish phrase giving authority to someone to determine whether something is allowed or forbidden. That is to say “to bind” is to tie, be in bondage, or be forbidden. While “to loose” means to set free, break up, or allow.
When Jesus speaks in Matthew 16:19, Jesus is not allowing Peter or the disciples to bind or loose whatever they wish freely. Instead, whatever Peter binds, or loosens on earth has already been bound or loosened in heaven. You see, preaching the gospel message would be the way to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers as ordained by God, and in like manner shutting it against unbelievers. Amen!
Binding and loosing is the authority to declare what God’s mind is on a matter of doctrine or practice. We can see an example of this in Acts 15. In this instance, Peter and James practice binding and setting free. The Gentile believers were being demanded to get circumcised by the Judaizers. But Peter, James, and Paul use God’s word and the teaching of Jesus Christ to explain why it is unnecessary to get circumcised for salvation.
In this instance, the gentiles were set free from circumcision, not because the apostles had the power to bind and loose freely. But because the gentiles were already set free by God’s word and the setting free on earth was something that had already been set free in heaven. Praise God!
In conclusion, when Jesus spoke to the disciples regarding binding and loosing, it was a commonly understood phrase by the Jews at that time. Binding was a declaration for anything unlawful not to be done, and loosing was a declaration for anything that may be lawfully done.
I pray that you may carefully consider the meaning of binding and loosing before loosely using these terms in spiritual warfare and overstep the bounds of the authority of God and His word given to us.
As the first confessor of the messiahship of Jesus (Matt 16:16), Peter was entrusted with “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16:19a)—that is, the privilege and responsibility of “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom” (Matt 4:23). In fulfilling this role, he was to use these “keys” to unlock the kingdom for certain people (“loosing”) and shut it up against others (“binding”).
What does ‘binding and loosing’ mean?
Among the Jewish rabbis, “binding” and “loosing” were idiomatic terms to denote certain types of conduct that were either prohibited (“bound”) or permitted (“loosed”), forbidden or authorized. Jesus used these two categories when he explained to Peter what was involved in using the “keys.”
“Whatever you bind on earth is already bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is already loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19 (HCSB; similarly CSB). The same guarantee is repeated in Matthew 18:18 in reference to all Jesus’ disciples (see Matt 18:1), for the singular “you” in 16:19 (three times) becomes the plural “you” in 18:18 (three times).
Whenever evangelists affirm that all those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ have their sins forgiven, they are declaring that such people are “loosed” and have entered the kingdom. In this declaration, they are dramatizing on earth the standing verdict that heaven (= God) has already made. Similarly, those who remain unrepentant unbelievers are “bound,” and the kingdom is shut against them. Heaven has already affirmed this truth, for “salvation is found in no one else” than Jesus the Cornerstone (Acts 4:11–12).
If this interpretation seems to stumble over the “whatever” (the neuter relatives ho ean in 16:19 and hosa ean in 18:18), it should be noted that the neuter often refers to a class of people, not things or in this case earthly declarations.
It is strong motivation to know that when we assure people that all who surrender themselves to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord gain eternal life, that assurance already has divine approval. We are declaring on earth a fixed heavenly decree.
However, it is certainly possible that both these verses should be rendered “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (NIV, NRSV; similarly KJV, NASB, GNT, NAB, ESV)—that is, God will confirm or ratify the earthly “binding” and “loosing.”
There are two clear examples of this divine ratification in the New Testament. When Peter recognized the carefully planned deception of Ananias and Sapphira in pretending that their gift was the whole of the proceeds of the sale of their property, he accused them of lying to God under the influence of Satan (Acts 5:1–4). Their sudden deaths amounted to God’s dramatic confirmation of Peter’s rebuke (Acts 5:5–10). With news of sexual immorality in the Corinthian church, Paul directed the assembled congregation to hand the man guilty of incest over to Satan “for the destruction of the flesh” (1 Cor 5:1–5). In this case, God’s ratification of Paul’s and the church’s judgment would come through the agency of Satan.
But it is not the case that all decisions made by church leaders, whatever their nature, will automatically gain divine approval. The direction of the Holy Spirit must be sought and received. For example, the verdict of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem concerning the conditions under which gentile believers could be received as fellow believers was issued as a decision that “seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28). Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 5:4, “When you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present . . .”
***
What did Jesus mean when He talked about binding and loosing?
Binding and loosing is a Jewish legal phrase giving authority to someone to determine whether something is allowed or forbidden.
Jesus uses the phrase in Matthew 16:19 when talking to Peter, but within hearing of the other apostles. "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Jesus was telling Peter that he would have the right to enter the kingdom of heaven himself. The keys symbolized general authority. Preaching the gospel would be the way to open the kingdom of heaven to all believers and shut it against unbelievers. Peter, preaching at Pentecost in Acts 2:14–40, opened those doors. Jesus intended Peter and the other apostles to continue His ministry of bringing the kingdom of God to earth by preaching the gospel. All Christians have a part in this effort, as we are taught to pray in Matthew 6:9–10. We are also included in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18–20.
Diving deeper into the Greek words and verb tenses in Jesus' words to Peter, we find that what Peter is given authority to do does not originate with him. The verbs used clearly communicate that whatever Peter binds or loosens on earth has already been bound or loosened in heaven (see Matthew 16:19 as above, and 18:18 where Jesus teaches about church discipline).
Peter was not given authority to admit people into God's kingdom or to choose what he wanted to allow and disallow. Rather, Jesus gave authority to Peter and the other apostles to correctly interpret God's message and to share it with others.
No comments:
Post a Comment