Matthew 18:18

“Truly I say to you, whatever things you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

But the congregation must seek to ensure that the verdict reached and the judgment carried out is approved of by Heaven. It is essentially Heaven's verdict that must be reached. Nevertheless the congregation is necessarily given the authority to express that verdict and carry out the sentence, still acting in meekness and considering carefully the genuineness of their own hearts (Galatians 6:1). And God will be behind them in their decision (if genuinely and spiritually reached)

When the Jews wanted to know how to apply the Law they looked to the Scribes who would determine the application of the Law by either enforcing its strict requirements (‘binding it'), or by ‘loosing' it by some interpretative method. In the same way the congregation of disciples was given the authority to seek the mind of God on the Law and then apply it, as they might well have done in the case of this person just excluded from the congregation.

But this declaration parallels that made to Peter in Matthew 16:19, indicating that there Peter received the promise as an individual disciple who would share the authority with other individual disciples, rather than as someone who was unique. Thus here it also has a more general application to all matters to be decided among the people of God, a procedure which we find carried out officially in Acts 15.