Mat 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
All seasoned Christians have heard this verse in one way or another. It was one of my favourite ones when I started going to church. It was a verse that I could use for encouragement and it was comforting to know that God was always present in every situation where believers gathered together.
But if you read it a few times you start to wonder, do we need to be two people to have God's presence? Does that make sense? Is this verse perhaps misunderstood? My eyes were opened when I really started thinking about it.
So let's establish what this verse is really talking about in today's teaching:
Testing the Logic
If we take this verse out of context and read it:
Mat 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
This could imply that the only way to have Jesus in your midst is to gather with believers. We know this is not true, because even if you are alone, God still listens to you. He hears your prayers and converses with you. Is He not with you in those situations? So clearly, this verse has nothing to do with believers gathering together to be with Jesus.
Establishing the Context
The context begins at the beginning of Matthew 18. Let's go through the themes leading up to the verse in question (Mat 18:20)
Mat 18:1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Mat 18:2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.
Mat 18:3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Conclusion: To be in Heaven, you must become like children. This essentially means to repent and become humble. Children also have a wonder for life, and so to must you have a reverence and wonder for God.
Moving to the next theme, which continues to describe the parallels between children and people who will enter Heaven:
Mat 18:6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Mat 18:7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
Conclusion: Jesus warns us to not lead any children astray (i.e. to not lead believers away from God) as this is detestable in His eyes.
The next theme:
Mat 18:8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
Mat 18:9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
These verses in themselves are also misunderstood. Christians can sometimes take the idea of 'cutting out your eye' if you are lustful as literal. What is actually meant here is that a Christian is represented by a body part (e.g. the eye). If a Christian is sinning, this can affect the whole body (representing the Church). Jesus then says it is better to cut the Christian (e.g. eye) out of the body, basically removing the Christian from the Church, so the rest of the Christians do not suffer and get dragged into sin with the one person.
Conclusion: Jesus says to watch out for people in the body of Christ who lead the new believers astray, as this can affect the entire body. It is better to remove the Christians who are causing harm (i.e. cut the eye or foot off) so the rest of the congregation is not affected.
The next theme:
Mat 18:12 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?
Mat 18:13 And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.
Mat 18:14 In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
Conclusion: Jesus mentions the famous verse about the 99 sheep. Jesus once again re-iterates how important his flock is, especially the 'little ones' (i.e. New believers).
The next theme is all about how to deal with the Christians who lead others away:
Mat 18:15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
Mat 18:16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
Mat 18:17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Conclusion: For people leading others astray, the first step is to talk to them one on one. If they do not improve, then two or three people should confront the person, to provide more council. In the final step, the matter is brought to the entire congregation.
Should the person still not change their ways, they are to be cut off from the Church. This is exactly what Yeshua (Jesus' real name) meant by 'cutting out your eye or cutting off your foot'.
The next two verses, just before the two or three gathering verse tie up the context for us:
Mat 18:18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Mat 18:19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
Conclusion: Bind and loose are words that are not used in modern English. If we translate them, bind means prohibit, and loose means permitted.
So to be more clear, we can re-write verse 18 as:
Mat 18:18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
Mat 18:19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
This is a bombshell statement - Yeshua gave the disciples authority to allow or not allow things in a church, provided it did not conflict with God's Law. The best example of this is Acts 15:
Act 15:20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
In Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council exercises its right to lower the barrier of entry for Gentiles into the faith. They picked what they believed were the most important Laws from the Law of Moses, and distilled it down into 4. They reasoned that this would not overwhelm new believers, but as Gentiles attended the church, they would learn the rest of the Laws as they grew. They did not change God's Law, but simply made a learning path for new believers to follow. This did not transgress God's Law, and so this is allowed.
The verse in question:
Mat 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
With the context in mind - God's people are people who have become like children, with amazing faith and love for God, and also have repented from their sins. People who lead believers astray are detestable before God. God then gave instructions on how to deal with these people - One-on-one confrontation, then two or three people, and finally, the whole church gets involved. If none of these worked, then the person is to be 'cut out' of the body. God gave freedom to his people to permit or forbid practices in a church to manage these situations, provided they did not transgress the Law.
So this verse is telling us that when two or three agree on a matter on how to deal with the congregation, and it does not transgress God's Law, then God is in agreement with them in the decision.
Prayer and fellowship have nothing to do with this passage. Of course, it does not mean God is not with you when two or more gather together, but that point is still true when you are alone. This passage points to an entirely different target audience.
Conclusion
Matthew 18:20 is often misunderstood as a verse about fellowship and prayer, but when examined in its full context, it reveals a much deeper meaning. The passage is part of Jesus' teaching on church discipline and guiding believers on how to handle conflicts within the community. The surrounding verses discuss confronting a fellow believer about sin, the process of bringing in additional witnesses, and ultimately the role of the church in resolving disputes.
When Jesus says, "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them," He is affirming that when believers come together to make decisions in accordance with God's law, about how to deal with the congregation, His presence is with them in that judgment. This is because the church, guided by God's wisdom, has been given authority to make binding (forbidding) or loosing (permitting) decisions for the well-being of the congregation.
While this verse does not negate the importance of prayer or fellowship, it should not be used as proof that God's presence is dependent on numbers. Even when we are alone, God hears and answers our prayers. Instead, this passage highlights the responsibility believers have in ensuring the spiritual integrity of their community, acting with wisdom, humility, and in alignment with God's law.
Be blessed!
