Discipline: Loosing and Binding

“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. “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. “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”Matthew 18:15–20

When Jesus told the disciples, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19), he was talking about discipline. In other words, in the context of church discipline, those who repent are to be “loosed” (i.e., restored to fellowship). Those who persist in sin are to be “bound” (i.e., removed from fellowship).”

It is a sad day when one continues in destructive ways, to oneself and to others and has to be distanced from fellowship because of unwillingness to submit to the authority of Christ, receive instruction and forsake sinful ways. It is not judgment against the individual, but recognition of the fact that such conduct is harmful to others and cannot continue to be allowed and enabled.