Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." (John 20:21-23)

"To 'bind' means to hold someone accountable or to obligate, while to 'loose' means to free from obligation or to forgive. This ecclesial practice, as outlined in Matthew 18:15-22, is a communal pastoral process of reconciliation rather than the legalistic method of community discipline with which it is commonly associated. The intent is not to search out and chastise wrongdoers or to purify and thus protect the community's reputation."

"The authority to bind and to loose is given not to just any group but to a people empowered by the Holy Spirit to be an intentional community of shared standards, mutual trust, and redemptive discipline."
-- Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church

Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22)

"[Reconciliation] is an antidote to the competitive, alienating individualism of North American culture. While central to the biblical understanding of the nature of salvation, reconciliation may be the most difficult practice for contemporary Christians even to consider, much less to actualize within their congregations."
-- Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church