Is Jesus Where Two or Three Are Gathered?

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Perhaps you've been in church, or youth group, or a Christian concert, and someone gets up and prays, Lord, you have said, where two or more are gathered, there

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I am in the midst of them. It's a verse that gets used in Christian gatherings a lot, but let's look at the context.

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Starting in Matthew 18, 15, Jesus says, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

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If he listens to you, you have gained your brother, but if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a

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Gentile or a tax collector. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

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Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my

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Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.

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The context is church discipline. It's the body of Christ restoring to the path of discipleship an offending brother or sister.

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The concept of two or three witnesses goes back to Deuteronomy, where the testimony of two or three witnesses was necessary to charge a person with wrongdoing.

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Jesus is saying in verse 15 that if it's possible to resolve a matter without getting others involved, we should try that first.

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If that doesn't work, bring a couple of others along to ensure the offender knows their offense is serious. Then it needs to go before the church, and if they still refuse to listen, they should be excluded from the fellowship.

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So where two or three are gathered, let there be unity with the mind of Christ when it comes to rendering important decisions, when we understand the text.