What “Binding and Loosing” Means in the Bible
“Binding and loosing” sounds like something from a sailing manual.
Or maybe a shoe store.
But it is one of the most important phrases Jesus ever said to His Apostles.
And most Christians have never been told what it means.
Wait… What Does “Binding and Loosing” Mean?
A lot of people read these words and think:
“This is about spiritual warfare. Christians bind the devil and loose blessings when they pray.”
And at first that sounds right.
The Bible really does talk about binding Satan.
And Christians really do have authority over evil in Jesus’ name.
But then you look at how people in Jesus’ day used the phrase, and you have to stop for a second.
Because His listeners knew exactly what He meant.
And it was not about the devil.
It was about authority.
What It Meant to a Jew in Jesus’ Day
Among the Jewish teachers of the time, to “bind” meant to forbid.
To “loose” meant to permit.
When a rabbi with authority ruled on a question of the Law, he bound or loosed.
Is this allowed on the Sabbath? Bound.
Is that allowed? Loosed.
It was the language of making binding decisions for God’s people.
It could also mean putting someone out of the community, or bringing them back in.
So when Jesus used this phrase, the Apostles did not hear “spiritual warfare.”
They heard: you will have authority to decide.
The Pharisees Were Binding Too
You can see it in the Gospels themselves.
Jesus says about the religious leaders of His day:
“Saying: The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses.”
— Matthew 23:2
“All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not.”
— Matthew 23:3
“For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them.”
— Matthew 23:4
Wait.
“They bind.”
Jesus doesn’t say their authority was fake.
He tells people to obey what they teach from Moses’ chair.
His complaint is how they used it.
They bound burdens on people and never lifted a finger.
So when Jesus gives binding and loosing to His Apostles, He is handing the chair to new men.
First, Jesus Said It to Peter
At Caesarea Philippi, right after Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus said:
“And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.”
— Matthew 16:19
Wait.
Bound in heaven.
Jesus is telling a fisherman that heaven will back up his decisions.
That is not a small promise.
And notice: Peter gets the keys along with it.
(More on that in What the Keys of the Kingdom Mean.)
Then He Said It to All the Apostles
Two chapters later, Jesus is teaching about what to do when a brother sins and will not listen.
First go to him alone.
Then bring witnesses.
Then:
“And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican.”
— Matthew 18:17
And right after that:
“Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.”
— Matthew 18:18
Wait a second.
The final court of appeal is not “your own reading of the Bible.”
It is “tell the church.”
And the church can make a decision that heaven honors.
So Peter received this authority alone, with the keys.
And the Apostles received it together, with Peter.
That is exactly how the Catholic Church describes the pope and the bishops (CCC 881).
“Whatsoever,” Not “Whomsoever”
Here’s a small word that changes everything.
Jesus doesn’t say “whomsoever you shall bind.”
He says “whatsoever.”
Whatsoever.
Not just persons.
Matters.
Questions.
Rules.
Practices.
Binding and loosing covers the decisions a community has to make.
And the context of Matthew 18 proves it.
It is about a sinner, a church, and a decision.
Not about the devil. About the Church deciding.
Binding and Loosing Sins
On Easter night, Jesus appeared to the Apostles and gave them a very specific version of this power.
“He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.”
— John 20:21
“When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
— John 20:22
“Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”
— John 20:23
Forgive or retain.
Loose or bind.
That is why Catholics go to Confession.
The Catechism says it plainly: the words “bind and loose” mean that whoever the Church shuts out of her communion is shut out of communion with God, and whoever she welcomes back is welcomed back by God (CCC 1445).
(We explain more in Why Catholics Confess Their Sins to a Priest.)
Want something to pray with this week? Get our free printable Rosary guide.
Watch the Apostles Use It
In Acts 15, the early Church faced a huge question.
Do Gentile Christians have to be circumcised and keep the whole Law of Moses?
The Apostles and elders gathered in Jerusalem.
There was a long argument.
Peter spoke.
James spoke.
And they made a decision.
Circumcision: loosed. Gentiles did not need it.
A few things: bound. Abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication (Acts 15:29).
And listen to how they announced it:
“For it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay no further burden upon you than these necessary things:”
— Acts 15:28
Wait.
“The Holy Ghost and to us.”
Not “we think.”
Not “here’s our opinion.”
The Holy Spirit and the Church, deciding together.
That is binding and loosing in action.
Paul Binds, Then Looses
You can watch it happen to one man.
In Corinth, a man was living in open, serious sin, and the community was ignoring it.
Paul writes:
“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus;”
— 1 Corinthians 5:4
“To deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
— 1 Corinthians 5:5
That is binding.
The man is put out of the community.
But look at the reason.
“That the spirit may be saved.”
It was medicine, not revenge.
And it seems to have worked.
In his next letter, Paul tells them to take a repentant man back:
“So that on the contrary, you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.”
— 2 Corinthians 2:7
“And to whom you have pardoned any thing, I also. For, what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ.”
— 2 Corinthians 2:10
Wait a second.
“In the person of Christ.”
That’s the same idea the Church still uses for a priest in Confession.
Bound.
Then loosed.
The goal of binding was always to loose.
Does the Church Still Do This?
Yes, all the time.
When the Church sets the days of fasting and abstinence, she binds.
When she grants a dispensation, she looses.
When a priest absolves sins in Confession, he looses.
When the Church grants an indulgence, she is drawing on this same authority.
And when someone is excommunicated, the Church is binding, in the hope that the person will repent and be loosed again.
Exactly what Paul did in Corinth.
The Early Christians Noticed
This is not a reading someone invented later.
Around A.D. 386, St. John Chrysostom wrote a book on the priesthood.
He says that men living on earth have been given an authority that God did not give to angels or archangels.
And he quotes Jesus: “whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven.”
A few years later, around A.D. 390, St. Ambrose of Milan wrote against a group that refused to forgive serious sins.
He argued that the Lord gave His Church the power both to bind and to loose.
You cannot keep half of it.
Antioch.
Milan.
East and West.
The early Church read “bind and loose” as real power, given to real men, for the sake of sinners.
“Isn’t Binding About the Devil?”
Let’s be fair to the view we started with.
Many Christians pray, “I bind you, Satan.”
And they point to a real verse:
“Or how can any one enter into the house of the strong, and rifle his goods, unless he first bind the strong?”
— Matthew 12:29
You may read that passage differently.
But you at least have to admit two things.
In Matthew 12, it is Jesus who binds the strong man.
And in Matthew 16 and 18, the words are not “whomsoever you bind” about demons.
They are “whatsoever,” about a church making a decision.
Catholics do believe in spiritual warfare.
The Church has exorcists, and every Christian can resist the devil in Jesus’ name.
But that is not what Jesus meant when He gave His Apostles power to bind and loose.
“Doesn’t Heaven Just Rubber-Stamp Men?”
Here’s the other worry.
Does Jesus really mean that God has to approve whatever the Church decides?
No.
The promise is not that heaven follows men wherever they go.
It is that Jesus will guide His Church so that her decisions match heaven.
He promised:
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth.”
— John 16:13
That’s why the Council of Jerusalem could say, “the Holy Ghost and to us.”
The Spirit leads.
The Church follows.
Heaven doesn’t rubber-stamp the Church. The Spirit steers her.
But Isn’t This Too Much Power for Men?
That is a fair worry.
And it would be too much, if the power came from the men.
But it does not.
Jesus gave it.
And He gave it to sinners on purpose.
Peter had just denied Him three times.
The Apostles had all run away.
Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on them anyway.
He did not choose them because they were impressive.
He chose them so that everyone would know the power was His.
So What Is the Catholic Claim?
Here it is in simple terms.
In Jesus’ day, “binding and loosing” meant making authoritative decisions: forbidding and permitting, putting out and bringing back in.
The scribes and Pharisees used that authority from the chair of Moses.
Jesus gave it to Peter with the keys, and to the Apostles together.
He promised that their decisions would be honored in heaven, and He sent the Spirit to guide them.
He gave them power to forgive and retain sins.
We watch them use it at the Council of Jerusalem, and Paul use it in Corinth.
The early Fathers read it the same way.
The Catholic Church teaches that this authority continues in the pope and the bishops in union with him (CCC 553, 881, 1444–1445).
So the real question is not:
“Who gave the Church the right to make rules?”
The better question is:
“If Jesus gave His Apostles the power to bind and loose, did He mean for it to end when they died?”
Because the Church still has questions to settle.
And Jesus still keeps His promises.
Keep reading: What the Keys of the Kingdom Mean, Why Catholics Believe the Pope Has Authority, and What Apostolic Succession Means, or browse more questions in Catholicism Explained.
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Catholic Sources
Scripture (Douay-Rheims): Matthew 12:29; Matthew 16:18–19; Matthew 18:15–18; Matthew 23:2–4; John 16:13; John 20:21–23; Acts 15:1–29; 1 Corinthians 5:1–5; 2 Corinthians 2:6–10.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC 553 (the keys and binding and loosing); CCC 881 (Peter and the college of Apostles); CCC 1444–1445 (binding and loosing in Penance).
Early Christian writers: St. John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood 3.5 (c. A.D. 386); St. Ambrose of Milan, On Penance 1.2 (c. A.D. 390).
Church documents: Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 22 (A.D. 1964).
