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Bible Study • Authority of the Church
"Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven." Few sayings of Jesus are quoted more often -- or understood less. Some use it to command angels or "bind Satan." But to the men who first heard it, "binding" and "loosing" were familiar legal terms with a specific meaning. Recovering that meaning shows us exactly what authority Christ gave His church -- and what He did not.
"And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:19 NKJVWhere the Phrase Comes From
The language of "binding and loosing" appears in only two places on the lips of Jesus. Reading them together keeps us from building a doctrine on half the evidence.
"And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Spoken to Peter (the "you" here is singular) immediately after he confessed, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). The keys come after the revelation of who Jesus is.
"Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Spoken to the disciples as a body (here the "you" is plural), in the middle of Jesus' teaching on confronting sin, involving witnesses, and telling it "to the church" (Matthew 18:15-17). Same words, applied to church discipline and restoration.
Documented History
Jesus did not coin these terms. They were established legal expressions in the Judaism of His day, and the men listening would have recognized them instantly.
In rabbinic legal language, "to bind" meant to prohibit -- to declare an action not permitted under the Law.
"To loose" meant to permit -- to release from an obligation and declare an action allowable.
The rabbis used this pair constantly when ruling on how God's Law applied to daily life. A teacher or a court would "bind" (forbid) or "loose" (permit) a given practice. The idiom was so familiar that it appears throughout early Jewish legal tradition and is preserved in the Mishnah and Talmud.
It was not religious poetry and it was not spiritual-warfare vocabulary. It was the courtroom language of authority to interpret and apply Scripture. This is documented outside the Bible as well: the first-century historian Josephus describes the Pharisees under Queen Alexandra as those who held the power "to loose and to bind" whom they would -- using the very same idiom to describe legal and judicial authority (The Wars of the Jews 1.5.2).
So when Jesus told Peter and the church they would "bind" and "loose," His hearers understood the category at once: He was entrusting them with authority to declare and apply God's revealed will -- to say, on His behalf, what is forbidden and what is permitted in His kingdom.
The Old Testament Root
The image of keys was not random. It reaches back to a well-known picture of delegated authority in the house of God.
"The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; so he shall open, and no one shall shut; and he shall shut, and no one shall open."Isaiah 22:22 NKJV
In Isaiah 22, God removes an unfaithful steward, Shebna, and gives "the key of the house of David" to Eliakim. The key was the badge of a steward -- a servant trusted to open and shut the master's house, to admit or refuse, on the master's behalf. A key is never ownership; it is delegated authority.
Jesus deliberately picks up this image. "The keys of the kingdom" are the authority to open the door of the kingdom to people through the gospel. The same picture returns in Revelation 3:7, where the risen Christ holds "the key of David" -- He opens and shuts. The steward acts only under the authority of the King who holds the true key.
A Closer Look at the Greek
The grammar of Jesus' words points in a clear direction. Many Greek grammarians note that the verbs are a periphrastic future-perfect construction, often rendered:
"Whatever you bind on earth shall have already been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have already been loosed in heaven."
On this reading, the apostles are not making heaven do anything. Heaven is not waiting for a human ruling in order to act. Rather, the church acts on earth in agreement with what heaven has already determined. Earth ratifies heaven's verdict; it does not create it.
Even scholars who translate the tense more simply agree on the theology: the standard is heaven, not human preference. This fits the entire pattern of the Book of Acts. The apostles never invented truth. They proclaimed what God had revealed and applied it with the authority Christ gave them.
Matthew 18
The second passage shows the authority in action -- not over demons, but over sin, discipline, and restoration in the assembly.
Go to the offending brother privately (Matthew 18:15).
If he will not hear, take one or two witnesses (18:16).
If he still refuses, tell it to the church (18:17).
Then comes "whatever you bind... whatever you loose" (18:18) -- the church's Christ-given authority to render a decision on the matter.
Here "binding" and "loosing" describe the church's authority in discipline and restoration: to hold a person accountable, or to forgive and receive them back. It is exercised under Christ and in agreement with His revealed will -- which is exactly why the very next verses speak of two or three agreeing in prayer and Christ being present in their midst (Matthew 18:19-20).
Notice the shift from Matthew 16 to Matthew 18. In chapter 16 the words are given to Peter individually as he first uses the keys; in chapter 18 they are given to the church as a body. The authority was never Peter's private possession -- it belongs to the church acting under Christ.
The Apostolic Pattern
If "binding and loosing" is authority to open the kingdom and apply heaven's will, then Acts should show it happening. It does.
"Then Peter said to them, 'Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"Acts 2:38 NKJV
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter used the keys. He opened the door of the kingdom by proclaiming the terms heaven had already established: repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He did not invent the message; he declared it. Three thousand entered that day (Acts 2:41).
Peter kept turning the key: to the Jews at Pentecost (Acts 2), to the Samaritans (Acts 8), and to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). Each time, the same gospel opened the same door. This is also what Jesus meant when He told the apostles, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:23) -- sins are remitted or retained through the faithful proclamation and application of the gospel of Christ, not by independent human decree.
The Common Question
Many sincere believers say, "I bind Satan," "I loose angels," or "I loose blessings." Is that what Jesus was teaching here?
Scripture absolutely shows believers exercising authority over evil spirits -- but it consistently uses different language to describe it. Jesus and the apostles cast out, rebuked, and commanded demons to leave:
The New Testament never records an apostle saying "I bind Satan" as a set formula for spiritual warfare. That does not make the phrase sinful, and Christ has genuinely given His people authority over the enemy -- but the "binding and loosing" of Matthew 16 and 18 is about doctrine, discipline, forgiveness, and the government of the church, not a warfare incantation.
Even Jesus' picture of "binding the strong man" (Matthew 12:29) is describing His own victory over Satan in delivering the oppressed -- not handing believers a formula to repeat. We exercise real authority in Jesus' name; we simply let Scripture, not tradition, define how.
At a Glance
Side by side: what the text actually teaches, and how the phrase is often used today.
| Biblical Binding & LoosingMatthew 16 & 18 | The Popular "Warfare" Usage"I bind Satan" | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | Forbid or permit, declaring and applying God's revealed will | Commanding or restraining spirits by personal decree |
| Its sphere | Doctrine, discipline, forgiveness, church government | Individual spiritual warfare |
| The standard | What heaven has already decided (Isaiah 22:22; the future perfect) | The speaker's own will or faith |
| Bible's language | Keys; bind / loose (Matt 16:19; 18:18); remit / retain (John 20:23) | Cast out, rebuke, command (Mark 1:25; Acts 16:18) |
| Given to whom | Peter, then the whole church (Matthew 18:18) | Used individually as a spoken formula |
| NT example | Peter opening the kingdom at Pentecost (Acts 2:38) | No apostle is recorded saying "I bind Satan" |
Documented History
The earliest Christian writers applied "binding and loosing" the same way the New Testament does, to the gospel, forgiveness, and the discipline of the church.
For the first Christian generations after the apostles, "binding and loosing" was consistently tied to church discipline and the remitting or retaining of sins through the gospel, never to a formula for commanding demons.
Origen (early third century), commenting on Matthew, argued that the keys and the promise given to Peter belong to everyone who makes Peter's confession of Christ, not to a single office. The authority follows the confession of who Jesus is, exactly as in Matthew 16 (Origen, Commentary on Matthew 12.10-11).
Tertullian (c. AD 200) discussed Matthew 16:19 in connection with the forgiveness of sins and the discipline of the church, not spiritual warfare (On Modesty 21). Cyprian of Carthage (c. AD 250) likewise applied binding and loosing to the church's authority in discipline and restoration (On the Unity of the Church).
Only later did some read Matthew 16:19 as the charter of a single supreme office (the papacy), a development that goes beyond what the text and the earliest interpreters actually claimed. The oldest understanding stayed close to the apostolic pattern: the confession of Christ, the proclamation of the gospel, and the ordered life of the church.
Memorize This
Matthew 16:19 NKJV
"And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Go Deeper
Read Matthew 18:15-20. How does the surrounding context (confronting sin, witnesses, telling the church) shape what "bind" and "loose" mean in verse 18? What would be lost by reading verse 18 all by itself?
If the apostles could only "bind" and "loose" what heaven had already determined, what does that tell us about the source of church doctrine and authority? How does Acts 2:38 model this?
Compare the language Scripture uses for demons (cast out, rebuke, command) with the popular phrase "I bind you, Satan." Why does it matter that we let the Bible define how we exercise authority in Jesus' name?
For the Historical Portions
The historical and linguistic claims above are drawn from the following standard sources. Scripture is quoted from the NKJV unless otherwise noted.
See how the apostles used the keys of the kingdom.
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