And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. - Matthew 16:19 (KJV)
Growing up in a charismatic denomination that was one of those verses that got us holy rollers all excited. We could bind the devil, demons, sickness, pain, and anything else we didn't like.I can't tell you how many times I heard people bind money problems and loose riches into their life or the life of others. When still very young I remember earnestly praying that God would bind every team that played against my beloved Kentucky Wildcats from winning.
We would lay hands on someone with the flu and bind the sickness. Several days later when all the symptoms disappeared we performed a 'hallelujah shuffle' because God had listened to our prayers and bound that flu. This was of course evidenced by the fact it was gone. Although the strange thing was that people who had never had anyone say a prayer binding their flu seemed to get rid of it in about the same length of time. Your not supposed to notice things like that though. To notice that was to diminish the miracle God had performed and to lack faith that God hears and answers our prayers.
Of course I remember attempting to do lots of binding and loosing, but none nearly so passionately as the prayers I prayed for my cousin, Jimmy, that was dying of multiple sclerosis. We were more than cousins. We were best friends. I prayed what had to have amounted to thousands of times 'binding' the sickness in his body. At the same time I would pray to 'loose' healing on his body. If I prayed those binding and loosing prayers that much I can only imagine how much his Mom and Dad prayed them. Jimmy himself prayed them. We all had faith that God would hear our prayers and bind the MS and loose the healing.
Jimmy got worse day after day. Finally after several months he passed away. He did so despite our belief and faith that God was going to heal him.
As I'm sure you can guess this wasn't the only time I ever saw 'binding and loosing' that didn't work. It confused me. Those words in Matthew 16:19 aren't conditional. They don't say it will only happen on some things that you bind or some things that you loose. There is no if this or if that at the end of the statement. It says whatsoever . . . will be.
Of course someone told me that when our binding and loosing prayers didn't work it was just because it wasn't God's will. At first glance this might be an acceptable answer. But if you scratch just beneath the surface it falls apart. If it's God's will to loose something it's gonna happen no matter what I pray. If it's his will to bind something it too will happen no matter what I pray. If our binding and loosing only works when it is God's will then we haven't bound or loosed anything. There is no 'whatsoever . . . will be." It's all completely out of our hands. It's totally up to God.
That leaves us with two options. The first one is that Jesus lied or was wrong. Not buying that one. So, what is option number 2? We have to take another look and ask ourselves where we are wrong. We have to try to find out what we have missed.
Where are we wrong? We didn't look deep enough. What did we miss? We missed what those words really meant. In a strictly technical sense the words binding and loosing are good interpretations. However, to a person in that culture there was a deeper understanding. This phrase refers to the laws of the Jewish people. Rabbi's would take their laws and determine when a law was applicable and when it was not. In a situation where the law was applicable you were said to be bound to the law in that situation. However, there are situations in which following one law would cause you to break a greater law. In this situation you are loosed from the lesser of the laws so that you don't break the greater.
Let's look at the law that the Sabbath was to be a day of rest for example. The Jewish people were not allowed to do anything that was considered work. One of those things was running. Yep, plain old running was considered too much exertion. That meant it was work and it was against the Sabbath laws.
What happens then if you want to go outside and play a little hoops on the Sabbath? It's good exercise so surely that was acceptable. Would not playing cause you to break some greater law? Nope, so the law was still binding. On the other hand what if you see someone down the road suddenly clutch their chest and fall to the ground? Can you run to them? Yes. Because the greater law is that you should help this person in the best way possible. In such a situation breaking a lesser law to fulfill a greater one is acceptable. In other words you are loosed from the law against running on the Sabbath in that instance.
Now I can see why the theology I learned about that verse growing up was so confusing. It was never meant to be interpreted the way it is interpreted in lots of churches today.
We were running around trying to bind and loose every spiritual and physical object under the sun. If everything I ever heard bound and loosed in my lifetime had actually happened every single person in the world would be a rich healthy Christian living in the one world nation of Christopia. Funny thing is what we should have been binding was our bad theology and loosing a new theology that wasn't so full of our own selfish motives.
For another great explanation of this go to tishrei's blog "Fruit of the Word" and read her post entitled "Binding and Loosing in Matthew 16:19".
Christian Terminology
2 days ago
October 3, 2009 12:54 PM
This really is an excellent presentation. If I could bind and loose, I'd be making my rounds at hospitals and emptying them of all the sick people. Unfortunately, pentecostal beliefs has become a huge influence and it's no wonder. who doesn't want that power?
p.s. I like your post better than mine. thx for the plug.
October 3, 2009 2:10 PM
tishrei - you hit the nail on the head. It was all about power. Wanting to think we had power. Wanting to think we were able to do all these things. That's actually one of the things I am going to touch on in my next post.
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