A Brother Who Sins Against You...

Matthew 18:15-19

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. 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 to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."
"I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. "
"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

Discussion:

I find it interesting that the word for BIND in vs. 18 in the Greek is: Deo with and line over the "o" and it means to tie, bind or imprison.

The word for loose in the same verse in the Greek is: lyo with a line over the "o" and it is a verb that means to loose, release, untie; to break, destroy.

I had always sort of read that verse for some reason putting in the work "LOSE" instead of Loose...which is really how it reads.

So anyway...

Questions:

• How many times to we get the order of going to our "brother or sister" a little confused?How often do we go to others before we go to the person that we feel wronged or offended by? Is that a sin on our part? This is something that I am truly working on...because it seems so much harder to get the courage up to confront someone, rather than just blow off steam to other people about the circumstance. I will admit, when I do this in the right order it really feels so great, and usually brothers and sisters in Christ who truly care about each other really want to right any situation.
• What does it mean to us to Bind things on earth? Does it mean that we are harboring ill will? Does that mean that God is binding some glorious things that we could have bestowed upon us in heaven?
• It does not say in this verse that if they completely agree with you, you have won. It says if they "listen" you have won. I think that is something I need to remind myself of. Do you have thoughts on this??? Where do you draw your lines here?