Will you please break down Matthew 16:19 where it says I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven?
I can say one thing we don’t want, and that’s to be bound by loose translations of scripture! See what I did there?
I am not a biblical scholar. I was not designed that way, my mind does not function the way that a scholar’s does. However, I have learned to rely on scholars when I want to know what the Scripture is actually saying. Some people try to discern the Scripture in their spirit. I think this is a very dangerous thing because our spirit was not meant to discern truth by itself. 1 John 4:1 (NIV) is a smoking gun scripture for what I just said. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” This is specifically dealing with teaching people. The Word of God is what we learn to test the spirits with, not the other way around. Your spirit may indicate to you that something is off in a teaching, but you have to be diligent to study it out to see if what you are actually sensing is truth. I am very leery of one who interprets Scripture with their spirit and not the Word of God. They will be deceived!
I am also an advocate of reading multiple accurate and accepted Bible translations. What most fail to recognize is that a reliable translation is the work of teams of well-studied scholars who are the top in their fields. These are the ones who do all the work that we glean from when we read our bibles or commentaries. They are linguists, archeologists, and ancient culture historians. I have found that too many times people have built doctrine based on a translation rather than the true understanding of what was written. In fact, I have a long list of scriptures (which is still growing) that people misinterpret from the way it is written and think it means something it just does not. I say this, because when we go to understand what the text says, we need to take care to understand what it is actually saying, not what we think it says!
This above scripture in Matthew is one that sometimes gets pulled out of context and this can be because of difficulty in translating. There are some things in scripture that even experts cannot perfectly translate. This truth shouldn’t scare us, but humble us. It should keep us open to possibilities that don’t line up with our theology. Now, let me also say, main biblical truths are well established. However, anyone who presents themself as one who knows it all is almost certainly deceived.
Your Bible understanding also depends on how you read the words that are present. For example, “I saw her duck.” One person can read this thinking of a girl’s pet, another reads this thinking of a girl avoiding a head injury. I have seen this happen in scripture many times. This is one of those examples. In the notes of several bibles it says that the phrase “Whatever you bind (loose) on earth shall have been bound (loosed) in heaven,” can be read “will have been bound or loosed.” In other words, that which can be bound here has already been bound there. Without the decree of the Lord, there will be no binding and loosing.
I default to practical application of this. I can’t tell you how many times throughout my Christian walk I have “bound and loosed” things with my words. Fully convinced that this was my right, I went about binding and loosing whatever I felt I needed to. The problem is it didn’t always work! I was faced with a conundrum. Why were my words not working? To my knowledge I didn’t use any less faith. In fact, I’ve had times when I’ve had such little faith and I was surprised when it worked! What do we do with this?
Our job is to have a relationship with the Heavenly Father. Our job is to take the time and learn from Him what He wants us to do in any and every situation. Certainly there are things that we know we have right to. Yet we have to understand, that sometimes things we would bind or loose are things that God would do just the opposite. In these cases, we have no power. Some of these things we will learn over time and some of them will be situational. We do the best we can, and we seek to learn when we fail. This life for us is a trial of learning how to rule with Him. It is a practice so to speak. However, as with any good mentor, He is not far from us, and He’s eager to teach us if we are willing to listen.
Should we bind and loose? Sure, but we should not do so flippantly as if we have say in running the universe. Remember, God permitted the serpent in the garden, He permitted the accuser with Job, He led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and though it was unrighteous of Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery, what they meant for bad, God MEANT for good. Don’t just accept every situation but allow His Spirit to show you what to do. If something is to be bound, it has been purposed so by God. If it’s to be loosed, His purpose will remain!
Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff
