Jesus Christ · On Prayer
The Prayer of Agreement
“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” sits at the close of a paragraph about a very specific problem: a brother who has sinned, and the church’s three widening steps to reach him. The church has always read these two verses both ways — as the promise that closes that particular case, and as a wider, standing promise about any two or three who pray together in His name. Both readings are old. Neither is manufactured, and neither erases the other.
The Text
— Matthew 18:15–20If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.The three widening steps for a sinning brother — alone, with witnesses, then the church.
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.Binding and loosing — the church's authority in the very case just described.
Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.Then the promise widens: agreement between even two.
For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”The presence promise — the reason two or three are never merely two or three.
Read in its own paragraph, the passage is about the church’s authority in a discipline case — a brother approached alone, then with witnesses, then before the church, and, if he still refuses, treated as an outsider (18:15–17). Verses 19–20 come right after “whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” (18:18). That is the paragraph’s own shape, and it is the first thing worth seeing before either reading below is taken up.
One Passage, Two Readings
— the paragraph's own steps, then the fork the church has always madeIN CONTEXT
18:19–20 read with 18:15–18
The “two or three” are witnesses to the discipline case just described; the “asking” is a ruling on it, not a blank check.
Held by: Albert Barnes · Glossa Ordinaria
Echoes Deuteronomy 19:15’s two-or-three witnesses
THE DEVOTIONAL READING
18:19–20 read on their own
The centuries-old reading the church has also always made: any concordant prayer of two or three gathered in His name.
Held by: Adam Clarke · Jerome · Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
Widely used in worship and small-group prayer
What He Is Saying
— harmony, and a presence promise older than the case“Agree” translates a Greek word that literally means to sound together, like instruments tuned to the same note — Adam Clarke, quoted below, calls it “symphonize.” “Two or three” is also not a random number: Deuteronomy 19:15 requires two or three witnesses to establish any matter under the Law, which is part of why the discipline-case reading fits the paragraph so naturally — the church’s process just described (18:15–17) runs on exactly that requirement.
A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.The Law's own rule: a matter is established at the mouth of two or three witnesses.
A saying with a Jewish echoAdam Clarke, on Matt 18:20
Writing on “where two or three are gathered,” Adam Clarke notes the promise was not spoken into a vacuum:
For where two - are gathered together in thy name - There are many sayings among the Jews almost exactly similar to this, such as, Wherever even two persons are sitting in discourse concerning the law, the Divine presence is among them. See much more in Schoettgen.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matt 18:20
The Voices: In Context
— the discipline case closes with a promiseAgain I say unto you, That if two of you ... - This is connected with the previous verses. The connection is this: The obstinate man is to be excluded from the church, Mat 18:17. The care of the church - the power of admitting or excluding members - of organizing and establishing it - is committed to you, the apostles, Mat 18:18. Yet there is not need of the whole to give validity to the transaction.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), Matt 18:19
(ap. Anselm.) But He holds out a ratification not only of sentences of excommunication, but of every petition which is offered by men holding together in the unity of the Church; for He adds, Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree upon earth, whether in admitting a penitent, or casting out a forward person, touching any thing which they shall ask, any thing, that is, that is not against the unity of the Church, it shall be done for them by my Father which is in heaven. By saying, which is in heaven, He points Him out as above all, and therefore able to fulfil all that shall be asked of Him. Or, He is in the heavens, that is, with saints, proof enough that whatever worthy thing they shall ask shall be done unto them, because they have with them Him of whom they ask. For this cause is the sentence of those that agree together ratified, because God dwells in them, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Glossa Ordinaria· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (1274), on Matt 18:19–20
For if "in the mouth of three witnesses every word shall stand: " -while, through the benediction, we have the same (three) as witnesses of our faith whom we have as sureties of our salvation too-how much more does the number of the divine names suffice for the assurance of our hope likewise!
Tertullian· On Baptism (220), on Matt 18:20
The Voices: The Devotional Reading
— the church has also always prayed these verses on their ownIf two of you shall agree - ΣυμφωνηϚωσιν, symphonize, or harmonize. It is a metaphor taken from a number of musical instruments set to the same key, and playing the same tune: here, it means a perfect agreement of the hearts, desires, wishes, and voices, of two or more persons praying to God. It also intimates that as a number of musical instruments, skilfully played, in a good concert, are pleasing to the ears of men, so a number of persons united together in warm, earnest, cordial prayer, is highly pleasing in the sight and ears of the Lord. Now this conjoint prayer refers, in all probability, to the binding and loosing in the preceding verse; and thus we see what power faithful prayer has with God! It shall be done for them - What an encouragement to pray! even to two, if there be no more disposed to join in this heavenly work.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matt 18:19
(Verse 19, 20.) Again I say to you: if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. The above discourse has encouraged us towards harmony. Therefore, it promises a reward so that we may hasten eagerly towards peace, as it says that it will be present among two or three.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew (420), on Matt 18:19–20
For where two or three are gathered together in my name--or "unto my name." there am I in the midst of them--On this passage--so full of sublime encouragement to Christian union in action and prayer--observe, first, the connection in which it stands.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Matt 18:20
Chrysostom's Own Honest Question
— raised against his own text, in the fourth century"And again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Seest thou how by another motive also He puts down our enmities, and takes away our petty dissensions, and draws us one to another, and this not from the punishment only which hath been mentioned, but also from the good things which spring from charity? For having denounced those threats against contentiousness, He putteth here the great rewards of concord, if at least they who are of one accord do even prevail with the Father, as touching the things they ask, and have Christ in the midst of them. "Are there then indeed nowhere two of one accord?" Nay, in many places, perchance even everywhere. "How then do they not obtain all things?" Because many are causes of their failing. For either they often ask things inexpedient. And why marvellest thou, if this is the case with some others, whereas it was so even with Paul, when he heard, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is perfected in weakness."
John Chrysostom· Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 60 (407), on Matt 18:19–20
Preaching on this very passage sixteen centuries ago, Chrysostom asks the question modern readers still ask: if two agree, why does agreed prayer sometimes go unanswered? His own answer — that some requests are simply inexpedient, the same thing Paul was told of his own unanswered request — is not new to this century. It is the same tension the next page on this hub takes up directly.
Where It Points
— the same tension, carried furtherClosing
Two verses, one road that forks once. Read inside its own paragraph, it is a promise that closes a hard case about a sinning brother. Read on its own, it is a promise the church has prayed for twenty centuries over any two or three gathered in His name. Both are real. Neither was invented to replace the other.