The question in the title of this article is very important. One thing that separates the church of Christ from the denominational world — and the entire religious world — is that the faithful church of Christ only binds and looses what God has bound and loosed. The moment we cease binding what God has bound and/or loosing what God has loosed, we cease being the faithful church of Christ.

God Has Already "Bound" and "Loosed"
Shortly after Peter"s monumental confession that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt. 16:16), Jesus told him, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt. 16:19). Later, the same instruction of "binding and loosing" was given to the rest of the apostles (Mt. 18:18). Understanding the tense of the verbs in these verses is necessary to any study of "binding and loosing." It is not the case that Jesus was saying that whatever Peter and the apostles "bound" or "loosed" on earth would be later ratified in heaven, as if they were the ones deciding what should be "bound" and what should be "loosed." Rather, the verbs behind the translation, "shall be bound in heaven...shall be loosed in heaven," are in the original language future perfect.

Upon first reading one might think that "shall be bound" is from one verb, and "shall be loosed" is from another verb. However, in an interesting pairing of verb tenses, each part consists of two verbs with different tenses. The verb translated "shall be" in both parts is the future middle form of "to be." The "bound" and "loosed" are from perfect passive participles of deo, translated "bound," and luo, translated "loosed." The perfect tense refers to a point (punctiliar) action that took place in the past that has continuing, present effects. Because there is no exact equivalent of the Greek perfect tense in English, most English translations do not convey the full meaning. To translate with the full force of the verbs, the verse actually reads, "Whatsoever you may bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven, and whatsoever you may loose on earth will have already been loosed in heaven."

By using this future perfect tense construction, the Lord was giving Peter and the other apostles the authority only to teach and preach the God-given terms by which one was admitted to or excluded from the kingdom. The apostles had no right to communicate anything different from that which God had already determined. For this reason, they were given the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to guide them into "all truth" (Jn. 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13). Their being inspired to communicate all truth, of course, did not guarantee their sinlessness (cf. Gal. 2:11-14), but it did guarantee that the message they preached was one hundred percent accurate, the word of God (1 Cor. 2:6-15; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). The "will have already been bound in heaven, and...will have already been loosed in heaven" principle was so serious that Paul later wrote, "Though we [apostles], or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:8-9)! If not even an apostle or an angel from heaven could teach something different from what God had already decreed in heaven, then one can conclude that no preacher, elder, Bible class teacher, or human being living today has a right to bind what God has loosed or to loose what God has bound.

"Liberalism" Is Loosing What God Has Bound
The word "liberal" in religious academia is usually reserved to refer to those "Bible scholars" who deny the supernatural inspiration of the Scriptures. Here, however, liberalism refers to "loosing what God has bound." Thus, liberals are those who loosen the standards that God has set through His inspired word.

Consider two New Testament passages that exemplify loosing what God has bound. First, Jesus said, "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 5:19). The word translated "break" is from a Greek word (luo), which means to "loose." Who are we to say what are the "least" commandments? Are not we to live by "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Mt. 4:4)? We cannot please God by "loosing" what we consider are His "least commandments," when God "bound" them!

Second, Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise [dill, NAS] and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone" (Mt. 23:23). The verb translated "have omitted" is from a Greek word (aphiemi), which has the basic meaning of to "let go, or release." Sometimes the word is translated "forgive" (Mt. 6:12, 14-15), for forgiveness is the "release" of sins. The verb is even translated "put away [divorce, NKJ]" (1 Cor. 7:11-13), as in the "letting go" of a spouse. However, in the verse quoted above, it refers to releasing, or letting go, part of God"s law. The "weightier matters" refer to what should have been obvious - justice, mercy, and faith! What these Pharisees were doing was making sure they had minutely taxed the people, yet letting go the very attributes that should have regulated their tithing. This did not mean that their tithing was not important, for Jesus said, "these ought ye to have done"! However, they also should have been practicing justice, mercy, and faith. The point is that we cannot pick and choose which of God"s commandments we will keep and which we will loose. If we love Him, we will keep them all (Jn. 14:15). In next week"s article, we will look at examples in the New Testament of binding what God has loosed, and make some present day applications. For now, though, let us respect what God has already bound and loosed, and ask ourselves, "Am I individually binding what God has bound?"

A Hermeneutic Lesson
Found In "Classic" Country Music

Recently, I was introduced to some "classic" country music. I had heard the name Patsy Cline, especially when we lived near Dyersburg, Tennessee, the place where she died in a plane crash in 1963, but until last week, I had never really listened to her music. For three hours I listened to her sing about thirty songs while I drove to the Nashville airport, and let me tell you, that woman could sing! Her voice was strong and clear, no matter what range of notes she sang.

In a line of her song, "I Can"t Forget You," she sang, "We were so carefree and gay." The word "gay" caught my attention. Then, it occurred to me: a word"s meaning must be taken from what it meant when it was used. Are we to think that Patsy Cline was singing about homosexuality when she sang that line? Of course not! Why? Because that is not what "gay" meant when she used it in that song.

Some people try to give the New Testament word "psallo" a meaning that it had hundreds of years before the New Testament was written. "Psallo" may have meant to pluck the strings of an instrument in Classical Greek, but that is not what it meant when the New Testament was written. "Psallo" meant "sing" when Paul used it (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), and that is how we should understand it today!

— Brian