Seeds for 11/14/2023 - Matthew 18:19-20
Scripture: “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Observation: So, the question I usually think of when I recall this verse is… well, do you ask it too?
Anything? Really? Anything at all, huh?
Sarcastically I posit that Jesus grasped the impossibility of two humans agreeing about anything and therefore knew He was writing a check He’d never actually have to cash!
Heretical humor aside, context, as always, is key. And what is that context again?
It’s this business of binding and loosing. Of the supportive accountability of the community to help one another grow in holiness and faithful discipleship to Jesus. It’s brothers and sisters who care about our Christian walk and invite us to care about theirs.
So when Jesus says “anything,” He’s speaking in the context of the caring conviction described in verses 15-17 and of the ministry of binding and loosing—what I’m interpreting as the binding of sin and loosing of forgiveness and redemption in the life of a fellow believer.
This isn’t carte blanche to ask for wealth, fame, and whatever other earthly pleasure one desires, so long as someone else will agree!
Instead, it’s related to the sort of praying and the sort of prayerful work in one another’s lives that we can rightly describe as partnership in one another’s spiritual maturity. When Christian friends—brothers and sisters, have agreed in the Lord about some point of my walk that I needed to attend to, it’s been a powerful experience. Likewise when they have communicated to me the reality of God’s redeeming grace.
What’s the source of that power? Jesus, of course, who promises to be present when just two or three are gathered together in His name.
Application:
How does reading this verse in the context of supportive accountability for one another’s spiritual maturity change the way you understand it?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, gather Christian friends who will care enough to participate in my spiritual maturity and who will value my participation in theirs. Show us how to spur one another onward in Christ. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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