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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Prayers of Binding and Loosing
Matthew 16
Introduction
Today’s lesson is too important to wait.
And I almost didn’t do it. Because these verses that we’re studying today are going to come up again in the book of Enoch, and I’m planning on starting a book of Enoch series here on the podcast early next year. And so you might hear some of this information repeated again in a few months, and I almost didn’t create today’s lesson so that I wouldn’t be repetitive.
But it’s just way too important not to tell you this today, because it has the potential to revolutionize your prayer life. And it gives us some very practical application to this series of episodes we’ve been doing about spiritual warfare and demons for the past few months.
I mean, why spend all this time learning about the capabilities of spiritual beings like demons if we don’t also learn about the capabilities we have as Christians to stop them?
So in Matthew 16, Jesus informs His followers about the spiritual authority that we have.
He says In verse 19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
But this terminology has not shown up in the Bible before, so what in the world does it mean?
I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 16, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
The Declaration of who Jesus is
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about what it means to bind and loose things in heaven.
We have done 7 or 8 episodes now about demons and spiritual warfare, and as I said a moment ago: why spend all this time learning about demons but not at least spend a little time learning how to stop them?
And I’ll tell you why not: because a lot of Christians think that concepts like spiritual authority and spiritual warfare are weird.
But that’s not a very good reason to avoid what the Bible says, is it? So let’s look at today’s verse in context, and then we’ll examine a few theories about what verse 19 means, and I think the proper interpretation is something that will become undeniably clear once we get to it.
In Matthew 16, this is the turning point of the Gospels. This is when Jesus begins acknowledging Himself as who He is, first to His own disciples here. They are at Caesarea Philippi, a site of demonic and pagan and idolatrous activity. There is an array or a pantheon of false gods that the peoples’ worshipped at that time inscribed on the walls. And it is at this location that Jesus asks His disciples this question.
Matthew 16:13-20
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now, I almost did an episode just about this verse right here, because there’s a lot of confusion about why Jesus says this to Peter, and a lot of controversy between the Catholic and Protestant churches about what Jesus means. If you’d like an episode about this, I’d be happy to dive into it, just send me an email and let me know. Jesus continues in verse 19:
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
So now we’ve received the context. Jesus is acknowledged as the Christ, and Peter says it, and then Jesus tells Peter that the only way someone can recognize this is because of a spiritual awakening that has happened in his heart.
Believing the good news- the Gospel- the truth- about Jesus places you in the Kingdom of God. It means you’re saved. It means you’re born again. It means you have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. It means that your old record of sins has been done away with and you are made totally pure and clean in God’s sight.
So getting saved means a lot of things. Your whole eternity is different. You have a new address when you die, and it’s in a much better place than the eternal destiny you used to have.
And Jesus could have pointed out any one of these glorious facts at this moment, but instead, Jesus decides to make a point to Peter about the spiritual authority that believers in God carry when they get saved. That once you’re a citizen of God’s Kingdom, God places an authority upon you that you can exercise over spiritual forces- such as demons or unclean spirits.
Why does Jesus emphasize this? Perhaps it’s because He is standing in Caesarea Philippi, a demonic stronghold. This is in Bashan, where the Sons of God came down to mate with human women as spoken of in Genesis 6 and explored in more detail in the Book of Enoch. Caesarea Philippi is located at the foot of Mount Hermon, which is the mountain where the Sons of God hatched this plan. This is where the giants- the Nephilim or Rephaim- lived during the days of the Old Testament. In ancient Canaanite literature, this region of Bashan where Caesara Philippi was located was considered the entryway to the underworld; in the Greek, they called it the gates of hell.
And it is at this spot where Jesus makes the point to His disciples that when you become a citizen of God’s Kingdom, you can go to war- and WIN- against the spiritual forces, the demons, and the gates of hell will not prevail against you.
We have the keys to the Kingdom. We can bind and loose things in the spiritual realm. And this is HOW we defeat the forces of darkness. So let’s talk now about what that means.
Wrong theories about binding and loosing
But first, here’s a couple wrong theories about binding and loosing. I want to mention these real quick because I want to explain improper ways to do Bible interpretation, and then we’ll look at the right way.
So some Christian traditions teach that binding and loosing refers to a Christian’s authority to break vows. That if someone has made a vow, a Christian can have the authority to declare the vow annulled or void.
Where do they get that idea? That idea first appears in post-New-Testament-rabbinical literature. To get that idea, you have to look at rabbinical literature that was written not even during the days of the New Testament, but came hundreds of years later. And they use these texts that were written a few hundred years after the New Testament was finished to arrive at the idea of what binding and loosing means.
Now, I don’t have a problem with using ancient sources or ancient texts to study and understand what words meant to people in Bible times. And if a document hundreds of years after the New Testament is the best you’ve got, then maybe that’s what you go with. But as we’ll see today, it’s far from the best we’ve got to understand this passage.
Then there are other Christian traditions that teach that binding and loosing mean that a Christian has the ability to forgive someone’s sins. And they base this by connecting Matthew 16 to
John 20:21-22, where Jesus said:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Now, the problem with the verses in John 20 is that they say nothing about binding and loosing. The word for “binding” in the Greek is deo (day-oh) and the word “loosing” is luo (lew-oh). And those words do not show up in John 20:21-22.
There’s really not a strong connection with what Jesus was saying back in Matthew 16. So if we want to know what binding or loosing means, we need the passage to either define binding and loosing, or perhaps use it in a sentence. That’s how you let the Bible interpret the Bible.
The right theory on binding and loosing
Thankfully, we have passages that use binding and loosing in clear sentences for us, and as I read them, you’ll see that they are unequivocally or undeniably about spiritual warfare.
Binding and loosing are about binding demons or fallen angels and loosing people from their grasp. This is spiritual language. Notice that Jesus says whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
“In heaven” means in the spiritual plane. In the spiritual realm, or the spiritual dimension. When demonic forces are constrained or restrained, that’s referred to as binding them. This is spiritual language, but it quite literally means that they are tied up in the spiritual realm.
Matthew 12:26-29 gives an example of this.
26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
It’s clear n context that the strong man that Jesus is referring to there is referring to Satan or a demonic power. A cross reference for this could be Mark 3:29. Another place we can look is
Luke 13, starting at verse 10:
10 Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” 13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
And then Jesus is questioned about this, because He had done a healing on the Sabbath, and as Jesus is replying He says
In verse 16
16 So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”
There’s both words: binding and loosing. Deo and luo. These are words of spiritual warfare against Satan and his forces. This is spiritual warfare vocabulary.
Some Christians think spiritual warfare sounds spooky or superstitious or or strange. But this is right here in the Bible. It’s the vocabulary Jesus gives us to use in our prayers. And therefore, many and perhaps most Christians are not praying in the authority bestowed upon them as a citizen of heaven because we aren’t praying prayers of binding and loosing.
How to land on the right theory
So, a note on Bible interpretation and then a note on application as we wind down today.
In the meantime, let me mention that we will have an episode next week for the day before Thanksgiving. I almost took it off because it’s a holiday week, but I decided to go ahead and put an episode out. So next week, we’ll be talking about Naaman’s jar of dirt. If you’ve ever read the story of Naaman in II Kings 5, you may have found it odd that he asks to take a jar of dirt along with him when he heads home. I want to explain what that’s all about on next week’s episode. It’s kind of a deviation from the kind of stuff we’ve been talking about lately on the show, but for some reason I’m really wanting to explain what that’s all about, so that’s where we’ll be next time.
And then in two weeks, I want to spend one more week on demononlogy. I plan to discuss the comment Jesus made about when demons wander through dry and desolate places and explain what that’s all about.
In the meantime, if you’re enjoying this podcast, I invite you to leave a 5-star review on Apple, or leave a positive comment on whatever platform you are listening on. If you ever want to get in touch, I’d love to hear from you. WeirdStuffInTheBible@gmail.com
So, a note on Bible interpretation real quick. I discussed today how there are various theories as to how to parse these words in Matthew 16. But we should always first let the Bible interpret the Bible. If we want to know what binding and loosing means, we should look at how the Bible defines or uses those words. We shouldn’t look at rabbinical literature written hundreds of years after the Bible to know what the words in the Bible mean.
Like I said before, if that’s the best you’ve got, then that’s the best you’ve got. But if we have the words being used in the Bible, that should have first priority, not extra biblical sources.
I’m fine with using extra biblical sources, like the book of Enoch. And if I wanted to, I could have gone to the book of Enoch today to prove that binding and loosing is spiritual warfare language. But as much as the book of Enoch illuminates our understanding of the Bible, I didn’t need to do that today, because the Bible already does that on its own, and the Bible has highest priority anyway.
I could have gone to the works of Josephus to prove that ancient Jews said binding and loosing was spiritual vocabulary. Josephus is an ancient Jewish historian, and many of his works help illuminate our understanding of the Bible. I would’ve went there if I needed to, but I didn’t, because the Bible defined itself.
So always give the Bible highest priority in Bible interpretation. When you want to figure out what a word means, start with how the Bible uses it before relying on ancient sources or Webster’s dictionary or anything else. That’s how we know that binding and loosing is not about vows, or forgiving sins, but about spiritual vocabulary.
Change How you Pray
And as we wrap up, one of the books that has the most spiritual vocabulary or takes place in the spiritual plane the most is Revelation. And we see the language of binding and loosing in here as well. And keys. Remember, this idea of binding and loosing is tied to the keys of the kingdom.
When I got my current job- and my last job- I was given a key to the place where I worked. This key was a mark of authority; it meant I am a professional or a leader at the place of which I was given a key. The key also meant responsibility. I had certain responsibilities that went along with the trust of that key being placed in my hands.
And the first thing Jesus wanted His disciples to know as they were brought into Kingdom Citizenship was that there are certain authorities and responsibilities that come with Kingdom Citizenship. Keep that in mind as we look at Revelation.
Revelation 20 has an angel binding up Satan during the thousand-year millennial kingdom.
(Revelation 20:1-3)
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
Satan will be bound. Overpowered. An angel with the key- the authority- can bind Satan. And when he is set free, verse 3 says he will be “loosed.” It translated it there as released, but it’s that same Greek word “luo.” And you have also been given a key as well.
Jesus says in Revelation 1:18
I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
It says of Jesus in Revelation 3:7
He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens
Revelation 9:1
Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.
And this angel will open a door to a place called “the abyss” and set loose demon locusts in a plague upon the earth. It’s quite freaky. This is one of the plagues of Revelation. It says a few verses later about another plague in
Revelation 9:14
“Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
And when it says “release,” it’s the Greek “luo.” Loose the angels. Who are bound. Binding and loosing. Deo and luo.
So guys, I wrap all this up to try to make an airtight case that binding and loosing is spiritual vocabulary for our prayers, and that Jesus has given us the authority AND the responsibility to do pray those types of prayers.
So if you’ve been praying for something, remember what we learned a few weeks ago: demons and fallen angels can disrupt our prayers. This was in the November 6 episode about Daniel 10. God can send the angel with an answer to your prayer, and that angel might get held up by evil forces in the heavenlies. Go back and listen if you didn’t hear that episode.
But my point is, when you pray, also pray that Satan and his minions are bound from inhibiting your prayers. Pray that they are bound and that your answers to prayer are loosed. After all, Jesus told us in the Lord’s prayer to say ‘deliver us from evil.’
That’s spiritual warfare. And we need to be doing it.
We have the keys of the kingdom. If I didn’t use the keys that my boss gave me when I became an employee, I’d probably get fired, because I was failing to use the trust and responsibility he placed upon me.
I would like to please my boss. But even more, I’d like to please Jesus, and use the trust and responsibility He has given to me as well.
And I hope you will as well. And if you think praying prayers of binding and loosing sounds weird, I hope you’re a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.