Matthew 18:15-20

If Your Brother Sins Against You

15 1"If your brother sins against you, 2go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have 3gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established 4by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, 5tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, 6let him be to you as 7a Gentile and 8a tax collector.
18 Truly, I say to you, 9whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[a] in heaven.
19 Again I say to you, if two of you 10agree on earth about anything they ask, 11it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three are 12gathered in my name, 13there am I among them."

Cross References 13

  • 1. Luke 17:3
  • 2. 2 Thessalonians 3:15; [Titus 3:10; James 5:19]; See Leviticus 19:17
  • 3. 1 Corinthians 9:19-22; 1 Peter 3:1
  • 4. Deuteronomy 19:15; 2 Corinthians 13:1; [Numbers 35:30; John 8:17; 1 Timothy 5:19; Hebrews 10:28]
  • 5. [1 Corinthians 5:4, 5; 1 Corinthians 6:1-6]
  • 6. [Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14; 2 John 10]
  • 7. Matthew 5:46, 47
  • 8. Matthew 5:46, 47
  • 9. [Matthew 16:19; John 20:23]
  • 10. [Acts 12:5, 12; Philemon 22]
  • 11. See Matthew 7:7
  • 12. [Acts 4:30, 31; 1 Corinthians 5:4]
  • 13. [Matthew 28:20; John 12:26; John 20:20, 26]

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or shall have been bound... shall have been loosed
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.