“For Where Two Or Three Are Gathered Together….”
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesOur Lord stated in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” His statement is generally used in the sense of His special presence at our assemblies when we gather to worship. Does this interpretation fit the context? In this article, let us closely examine the context and see what it does teach.
Personal Sin And Church Discipline Procedure
Immediately preceding His statement about two or three gathered together in Matthew 18:20, is instruction about dealing with personal sin ultimately necessitating “church discipline” (Matthew 18:15-17). In that instruction, a plurality of witnesses is shown to be essential. Note Matthew 18:16, “take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established….” The first consideration pursued to understand the whole context is whether or not the statements in Matthew 18:18-20, are connected to the procedure mentioned in Matthew 18:15-17. If there is a connection, it is in application of the essentiality of “two or three witnesses” (Matthew 18:15-17), “two of you shall agree” (Matthew 18:19), and the “two or three are gathered together” (Matthew 18:20). The principle is that a plurality of witnesses is essential to the establishment of truth. This would be reasoning from the general to the particular, the general being the establishment of truth from revelation, and the particular is the application of revelation to church discipline.
Validity Of Truth Established By Two Or Three Inspired Sources
At the beginning of the church, there was no written inspired word. The only way the disciples would know the validity of truth, when a question might arise, was by the testimony of two or three credible witnesses. Which is not to say that truth would not be truth, if two or three men did not agree that it was, but that all could know it was truth by the agreement of revelation from the testimony of two or three inspired sources. There is a historical case study in the New Testament verifying the truth Jesus taught in Matthew 18:20. This study is recorded in Acts 15:1-21. Why did Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem? One of the reasons is when the apostles and elders had assembled together, there was a procedure of comparing testimony of revelation (Acts 15:6-21). There was the inspired testimony of Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James (Acts 15:7,12,13), which related directly to a particular revelation about what God required of the Gentile Christians (Acts 15:19-20). Then, there was a conclusion reached from that assembly by the comparison of revelation, i.e., “It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord….” (Acts 15:25-29).
Conclusion
The explanation that Matthew 18:20 refers to an agreement and verification of inspired revelation more properly fits the context than the conclusion that Jesus was saying He would be present, in a special sense, even in the smallest assembly of the saints, when they gathered in His name.