Historic pastoral reading
Christ is with his people. This sentence is about binding, loosing, and two or three witnesses.
Matthew 18:15-20
Where two or three are gathered.
The text
WEB
15 If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone.
19 Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.
KJV
15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
What kind of text
- Gospel
- Church life
- Discipline
Jesus is teaching how to deal with sin in the fellowship.
How Christians have read this
Common misuse
Used to comfort a tiny prayer meeting as if that were the point of the paragraph.
What the next verse does
Peter then asks how often to forgive.
Older commentary
Matthew Henry
Henry on Matthew 18:20: Christ is in the midst when the church deals with a brother, binds, and looses.
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon would not turn this sentence into a rule about how small a meeting may be.