Matthew 18:18
Matthew 18:1818Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The Watchtower does not frequently foreground in its own right, but it appears in the background of the "Acts 15 = Governing Body" succession claim. Because gives Peter the keys and binding-and-loosing authority, and the Watchtower reads that authority as transmitting to a modern channel, is typically downplayed or folded into the broader church-discipline passage () without drawing attention to the fact that the identical binding-and-loosing language has now been extended to the gathered disciples as a whole. In Watchtower ecclesiology the passage supports the elder arrangement and judicial committees rather than any universal congregational authority.
Reformed and Protestant exegesis treats as the decisive parallel to . Jesus gives the exact same binding-and-loosing grant — word for word — to the gathered ordinary disciples, with no Peter, no keys, and no institutional chain. This demonstrates that the authority of the keys was never a monopoly held by one apostle or one successor body; it was given to every gathered congregation of Jesus' people. Combined with (the foundation laid once, apostles plural, Christ as cornerstone), the passage dismantles any claim that a modern organisation holds unique binding authority. As John Piper observes, the same words spoken to Peter in chapter 16 are spoken to the plural "you" in chapter 18 — the authority was always meant to be held by Jesus' people wherever they gather in his name.