Meaning?

Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I truly tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. Matt 18:18-19

I will give you the keys of the kingdom, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matt 16:19

I have never noticed these verses before! But what an insight into some significant questions on how we go about our business on Earth – we can call the shots in partnership with God. God is giving his followers the authority to make new interpretations of the bible and that somehow God is involved with that process.

To bind something means to “forbid” it, to loose something means to “allow it”. The rabbis of the day used to practice this binding and loosing all the time – in relation to the Torah. Rabbis had great authority in their communities– as did Jesus, and Jesus passed this authority onto his followers and effectively onto us.

So God encourages us to argue and wrestle with the text of the bible – to question everything and to come up with our interpretation with the guidance of God. We are encouraged to do this in community – as a group – 2 or more – with God.

This once again raises the importance of living a “with-God” life, to read the text, to read the notes on the text AND to pray and meditate – to listen and to be guided for what is right for our community!!!

The early believersChristians had to do this when it became aparent that Gentiles were being transformed by God and becoming christians– those who were not Jewish. This was a big problem because it was “unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile” (Acts 10:28). So some Jewish leaders got together and argued it out, debated it and came to the conclusion that “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials:” (Acts 15: 28, the whole of Acts 15 explains the process).

Rob Bell speaks of this decision the believers made in his book Velvet Elvis; which I think is really important.
“They are making a monumental decision in the history of Christianity, and the best they can say is that it seems like it is the best decision? It seems good to them and the holy spirit? They don’t claim to have an absolute word from God on the matter; they at best claim guidance from the holy spirit of God, but they even hold that loosely.”

This is great! We need to remain humble in our decisions, be open to the fact that we might not have nailed the first time – not for decisions to be set in concrete for the rest of our existence but to work out our interactions with people and with our earth - with our God.

I wonder how much more of a tolerant, loving, peaceful community we would be if we used the keys to the kingdom a little more seriously…