Matthew 18:20

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

In the case of the first interpretation in Matthew 18:19 this would be expressing Jesus' promise that when two or three gather with the purpose of coming to a judgment on some matter of morals they could be sure that Jesus was among them as the senior Judge to ensure that they had the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). The Rabbis similarly thought that ‘if two sit together and words of the Law are between them, the Shekinah (the glory of His presence) rests between them'. This would be especially comparative if the believers are seen as judging from the open Scriptures.

In the case of the second interpretation this would give the assurance that whenever two or three came together in worship, or to make decisions in His Name, they could be sure of the presence of Jesus among them in a very real way, over and above His usual presence, this in accordance with His promise in Matthew 28:20. They would know Him as ‘God with us' (Matthew 1:23). This would be especially important once they were ‘on the road' as evangelists. Again both the particular and the general were probably in Jesus' mind. It was a general promise but with a particular application to the situation just described.