From the desk of Pastor Ben
The Authority of The Church
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”         (Matthew 16:19)

Here Jesus tells Peter and his colleagues, and by extension the entire church, that they had (and have) authority to declare what is divinely forbidden or permitted on earth. Later on, in His instruction on church discipline to all His followers, our Lord would teach that a sinning member, unrepentant after several stages of counseling, must be treated as an unbeliever (Matthew 18:15-18; John 20:23). Therefore, a properly constituted body of believers has a duty to tell an unrepentant member that he or she is disobeying God’s Word and must not have fellowship in the church.
The source of such authority resides not in church members themselves, any more than did the apostles’ authority reside only in their exalted position. With authority believers can declare what is acceptable to God or forbidden by Him because they possess His Word. They don’t have to determine what is right or wrong, but based on Scripture they simply recognize and teach what God has already determined. Because they have God’s Word on “everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3), Christians can be sure their assessment of important spiritual matters corresponds with that of heaven. With this kind of authority on their side, they can even discern a person’s spiritual condition by comparing that life to the Word of God.

Ask Yourself:
Certainly we know of ways people (and churches) can abuse our high-ground claims of biblical authority, but in truth we are much more likely to fear exercising its demands, not calling ourselves and others to live under its protective truths. How have you seen this happen?