BINDING AND LOOSING

Have you ever wondered why the worship and work of various religious groups are so different? For example, churches of Christ and a few other groups do not use mechanical instruments of music in their worship services. Churches of Christ serve the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day - not just monthly or quarterly or annually. Churches of Christ do not burn incense, count the rosary, keep the Sabbath, observe the Passover or have testimonials. We do not refer to our preachers as "reverend" or "father" or "pastor." Is there a reason why churches of Christ are different from other religious groups? Are we just trying to be different or can we find scriptural reasons for these differences? If we cannot furnish scriptural justification for our worship and work, we should just admit it and "fall in with fleeting fashions of the world" (Rom. 12:2).

Please listen to this well-known passage. "When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He says unto them, But who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto you, That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto you the keys to the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt. 16:13-19). There are many very vital truths in this excerpt, but I shall dwell on verse 19: "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." I am calling our study today: "Binding and Loosing."

My first obligation is to examine the tenses of the verbs "shall be bound" and "shall be loosed." If you know much about the controversies in the religious world, you know how vital it is for us to know what Jesus meant by "shall be bound" and "shall be loosed." Just in case someone might accuse me of building a case from my own experience and knowledge, I shall consult some of the most influential scholars in the world. Dr. D. A. Carson of Trinity Evangelical Seminary is one of the foremost Greek scholars of our generation. In his commentary on Matthew in the Expositor's Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), Dr. Carson calls the verbs I have mentioned "future perfect periphrastics" and then comments: "Whatever he binds or looses will have been bound or loosed, so long as he adheres to the divinely disclosed gospel" (volume 8, p. 373).

Dr. A. T. Robertson, one of the leading Greek scholars of all time, published a series of books with the title, Word Pictures in the New Testament. In his volume on Matthew and Mark (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1930), Dr. Robertson makes these remarks about binding and loosing: The verbs are "future perfect indicative" and denote "a state of completion. All this assumes, of course, that Peter's use of the keys will be in accord with the mind of Christ.... Every preacher uses the keys of the kingdom when he proclaims the terms of salvation in Christ" (volume 1, pp. 134-135). Dr. Robertson is teaching that Peter and the other apostles were simply binding on earth what God had already bound in heaven and loosing on earth what God had already loosed in heaven.

Dr. Cleon L. Rogers, Jr. and his son, Dr. Cleon L. Rogers III - both distinguished German scholars - have given the world an extremely useful study of the Greek New Testament. Their book has the title, The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998) - a book, incidentally, I use almost everyday. Concerning the verbs we are examining, these authors affirm: "This construction is future perfect passive periphrastic transitive." The verbs mean "will have been bound" and "will have been loosed." "It is the church on earth carrying out heaven's decisions; not heaven ratifying the church's decision" (p. 37).

Thousands and thousands of preachers of various religious groups have Barnes' Notes on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1952) in their studies. I have been using Barnes' Notes for more than fifty years. I ask you to listen carefully to what Albert Barnes has written about "binding" and "loosing." "When Jesus gave this power to the apostles, he meant that whatsoever they forbade in the church should have divine authority; whatever they permitted, or commanded, should also have divine authority - that is, should be bound or loosed in heaven, or meet the approbation of God. They were guided infallibly in the organization of the church, 1st by the teaching of Christ, and, 2^nd, the teaching of the Holy Spirit" (p. 171).

Jesus was not telling Peter and the other apostles: "God is in heaven listening to what you are teaching. He will bind or loose what he hears you bind or loose." Instead, Jesus was teaching as plainly as words can be made: You must bind on earth what God has already bound in heaven and you must loose on earth what God has already loosed in heaven. For example, the message Peter preached on the day of Pentecost was what God ordained should be preached. Peter had no more authority to bind or to loose on his own than you and I have. If he had bound or loosed his own beliefs and opinions, he would have been preaching another gospel. The one who preaches another gospel will be accursed (Gal. 1:8-9).

Let us examine some of the practices of churches of Christ to ascertain if we are binding or loosing our own views. Let us think of baptism for a few minutes. The Bible binds certain ideas regarding baptism. Baptism is for the remission of sins. "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Baptism washes away our sins. Ananias commanded Saul of Tarsus: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). We put on Christ in baptism. "For we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:26-27). We are baptized into the church of the living God. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13). In baptism we die to sin and are raised to walk in a new life. In Romans 6, Paul teaches that baptism is a burial. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). Baptism saves us. "The like figure whereunto baptism does also now saved us (not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21). Baptism must be preceded by faith in Jesus Christ. "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned” (Mk.16:16). If our chief concern is to please God, we have no choice but to preach and practice these great truths. We do not decide on our own whether to believe and to preach these biblical concepts; God has already made that decision. If we do not preach and practice what the Bible teaches, how can we expect to have God's approval?

But there are aspects of baptism that God has loosed. God has loosed the place where a person is baptized. Like many of the older preachers in my audience, I have baptized people in rivers, in farm ponds and in baptisteries. So long as there is sufficient water to bury the person, it does not matter where that water is. Do you remember what the apostle John wrote about John the Baptist? "John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salem, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized" (John 3:23). The expression, "much water," would rule out sprinkling or pouring as substitutes for New Testament baptism.

God has also loosed the person who does the baptizing. It does not matter who actually administers baptism - an elder, a preacher or the subject's father or brother or friend. If the validity of baptism depends on the goodness of the one who does the baptizing, there could be no assurance of salvation. What if the preacher who does the baptizing is a crook or a womanizer, does that mean the baptism does not wash away our sins? We have no right to bind what God has loosed. And God has unquestionably loosed the person who does the baptizing.

God has bound water as the element of baptism, but he has not bound the temperature of the water. I certainly believe the water should not be ice cold so that the person being baptized will have pleasant memories of the event. However, thousands of people have been baptized in pools where the ice had to be broken. I sincerely hope and pray that you can see the differences between what is bound and what is loosed. We must bind only what God has already bound and loose only what God has already loosed.

I shall apply the same principles to evangelizing the world. Jesus commanded his apostles: "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned" (Mk. 16: 15-16). God has bound going on Christians in every generation until Christ returns. Matthew records the Great Commission: "Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you all the way, even unto the end of the age" (Mt. 28:19-20). A careful reading of the book of Acts should provide insight and encouragement for Christians to carry out the Lord's commission. How much we can learn from the great work Paul and his companions did in spreading the gospel!

Not only did God bind the duty of going; he also bound the message. We cannot preach psychology or philosophy or sociology, although all of these disciplines can be valuable to gospel preachers and to other teachers. Our message must be the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of the preachers on Trinity Broadcasting Network and on the Inspiration Channel, like Joel Osteen and Robert Schuler, preach pop psychology. How many times have you heard those preachers discuss the great moral issues our nation faces? How often do they preach the powerful stories of conversion in the book of Acts?

Paul outlined some of the great truths of the gospel. "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep" (l Cor. 15:1-6). Obviously there is much more to the gospel than what Paul teaches in these verses, but I do not have the time today to examine it.

Those preachers who would please God must preach the whole counsel of God, just as Paul told the Ephesians he had done (Acts 20:27). The gospel message is bound. If a man preaches any other gospel, he will be accursed in the final judgment (Gal. 1:8-9). But there are some aspects of preaching that are loosed. For example, Jesus commanded us to go, but he did not bind the method of going. Paul and his companions almost certainly walked thousands of miles. Some of them may have traveled by horseback. We know Paul also traveled on ships. During the past fifty years, I have done most of my traveling by private aircraft. Today I travel around the world by way of radio and the Internet. Since the Lord did not say, "You must travel on horseback," we are free to use whatever method of travel is most suitable.

Like most preachers, I have many books on preaching. Some of those books outline the advantages on expository preaching or on telling stories or on inductive preaching or on deductive preaching or on topical preaching. Did God bind any of these approaches to preaching? We are free to choose whatever method seems best on each occasion. Of this we can be sure: We are not called into the Lord's service to entertain our audiences. We would do well to remember Paul's inspired instructions to a young preacher: "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts will they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Tim. 4:2-4).

The New Testament provides a pattern for the worship of the church. That pattern includes music - a cappella - not mechanical instruments of music. We have an obligation to bind singing, but we have no right to use instrumental music. Paul commanded the church at Ephesus: "And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:18-19). However, there are phases of our worship in music that we may not bind. For example, there is nothing in the New Testament that tells us how many songs we should use in the worship service. The Bible says nothing about the order of our worship in song. We must be very careful not to bind our own preferences in the singing of the congregation.

Paul told the Colossians that our songs should teach and admonish (Col. 3:16). Many of the songs that are popular in some religious services teach very little. They repeat a word or an expression over and over. They seem to be designed to create an emotional response rather than to teach and to admonish. I have witnessed worship services on Trinity Broadcasting Network where the people get worked into a frenzy, not unlike what one sees at rock concerts on television. Then when the television evangelist asks for money to support his programs, the people are willing to give all they have.

There is so much more I would like to discuss with you, if time permitted, but I must close with a few observations. One of the slogans in the American Restoration Movement was very simple but powerful: "We must speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. We must do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names." Those sentiments cannot be found in those exact words, but there is no doubt of their scripturalness. Is that not basically what the Apostle Peter told some of the first century Christians? "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles (or words) of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God gives: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever" (1 Pet. 4:11).

If you think what I have discussed with you today may be too restrictive, please listen to a prominent Presbyterian preacher, Dr. John L. Girardeau. Dr. Girardeau taught for many years at Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. His students asked him why he opposed the use of mechanical instruments much in worship. He provided his answer in the book, Instrumental Music in the Worship of the Church (Fayetteville , TN: International Gospel Hour, n. d., a reprint). The introductory paragraph to his book is instructive. "Attention, as the outset, is invoked to the considerations which serve to establish the following controlling principle: A divine warrant is necessary for every element of doctrine, government and worship in the church; that is, whatsoever in these spheres is not commanded in the Scriptures, either expressly or by good and necessary consequences from their statements, is forbidden" (p. 1). Is that not exactly what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 16:19: "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven?"

Winford Claiborne

The International Gospel Hour

P.O. Box 118

Fayetteville, TN 37334