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“In A Bind”
Categories: NEW TESTAMENTWhat does this mean: "Whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in heaven”?Sincerely,
Loosely Lost
Dear Loosely Lost,
The phrase that you are referring to is found in Matt 16:19 and Matt 18:18. In both cases, Jesus is speaking to His disciples. This is one of the few times where the original Greek adds a lot of insight and clarity. The words ‘will be bound’ and ‘will be loosed’ are both written in a Greek tense called ‘perfect’. The perfect tense isn’t like any tense that we have in English. The perfect tense means that something has already happened, but the effects of that action are still in existence. The literal translation of Matt. 18:18 is: “Whatever you bind on earth will already have been bound in heaven, and the effects are still seen, and whatever you loose on earth will already have been loosed in heaven, and the effects are still seen.” In short, Jesus was telling His disciples that the things they would teach in the New Testament were already ordained by God and had been waiting to be taught by Jesus and His apostles.
