Matthew 18:18 (DBY)

Passage

Verily I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Nearby Context

Matthew 18:16 But if he do not hear [thee], take with thee one or two besides, that every matter may stand upon the word of two witnesses or of three.

Matthew 18:17 But if he will not listen to them, tell it to the assembly; and if also he will not listen to the assembly, let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer.

Matthew 18:18 Verily I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 18:19 Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in [the] heavens.

Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "verily", "whatsoever", "shall", "bind", "earth", "bound", and "heaven". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "verily" and "whatsoever", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 17's "But if he will not listen to..." into verse 19's "Again I say to you that if...", so "verily" and "whatsoever" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "verily" and "whatsoever" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.