Practices of the Church 1: “Binding and Loosing”

Last updated on: November 30, 2011 at 7:47 pm by Joel Willitts

Practices of the Church 1: “Binding and Loosing” 2011-11-30T19:47:38-04:00 Joel Willitts

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In John Howard Yoder’s Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community before the Watching World (Herald Press, 1992), the first practice he describes he calls “Binding and Loosing”- taken the phrase from Matt 18:18:

Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven”

The particular practice that Yoder has in mind is the practice of “winning”, that is restoring, an offender back into fellowship through a restorative dialogue.

If your brother or sister sins, go and reprove that person when the two of you are alone. If he or she listens you have won your brother or sister (Matt 18:15).

The community’s decision after this conversational process is divinely sanctioned. “The community’s action is God’s action”, says Yoder.

Moral discernment and forgiveness is the task of the church and these are captured in the dual vocation of “binding and loosing”. Yoder summarizes:

Believing men and women are empowered to act in God’s name.
What the believers do, God is doing, in and through human action
God will not normally do this without human action
If we receive forgiveness, we must give it.
This dialogical reconciling process must come first. Only then must we turn to talk of the set of standards that his process enforces. Much Christian debate about moral issues makes the mistake of concentrating on what the standards ought to be rather than on how they are to be discerned and implemented (6).

Of this apostolic approach Yoder says:

It gives more authority to the church than does Rome, trusts more to the Holy Spirit than does Pentecostalism, has more respect for the individual than does liberal humanism, makes moral standards more binding than did Puritanism, and is more open to the new situation that was what some called “the new morality” a quarter century ago. If practiced, it would radically restructure the life of churches (6-7).

Yoder concludes:

To be human is to be in conflict, to offend and to be offended. To be human in the light of the gospel is to face conflict in redemptive dialogue. When we do that, it is God who does it. When we do that, we demonstrate that to process conflict is not merely a palliative strategy for tolerable survival or psychic hygiene, but a mode of truth-finding and community-building. That is true in the gospel; it is also true, mutatis mutandis, in the world (13).

I think Yoder makes two very important points. First is his anthropological observation that to be human is to be in conflict. So, Jesus’ mandate to forgive sins through dialogical reconciliation is the foundation of community life. That this is not simply an individual call to forgive, but a community call, is revolutionary.

Second, Yoder’s suggestion that the church should follow the rabbinic practice of moral discernment (“binding”), by which he means that we are to be more concerned with how we discern and implement moral standards than with what the standards are, is provocative. I don’t take him to mean that the church in anyway lessens the demand of discipleship through such a practice – quite the opposite. Rather it seems that he calling the church to change from a simplistic model of scripture application to a model of scriptural discernment. A model that focuses on the need to discern what the Scripture is saying to us in new and unforeseen situations.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

November 29, 2011

Roland Allen - Why We Need Missiologists

Next Post

December 1, 2011 Thoughts on Gal 1:4

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Bible Lands Blogosphere Book Review Calvinism Colleges & Universities Ecclesiology Emerging Adulthood Evangelicalism Foreign Affairs Gospel of John Greco-Roman World Humor Just War N. T. Wright Old Testament Resurrection Terrorism Theological Education Travel Uncategorized Writing

Select a Month September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many books of the Bible are named after women?

Select your answer to see how you score.

1 4 3 2

Books by This Author Books by Mike Bird

See All Titles »