John Calvin Commentary Matthew 18:20

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." — Matthew 18:20 (ASV)

For where two or three are assembled in my name. This promise is more extensive than the former, for the Lord declares that He will be present wherever two or three are met together in His name,
to guide them by His counsel (Psalms 73:24), and to bring to a prosperous result whatever they will undertake.

There is therefore no reason to doubt that those who yield to His direction will derive the most desirable advantage from His presence.

And since it is an invaluable blessing to have Christ as our director in all our affairs, to bless our deliberations and their results, and since, on the other hand, nothing can be more miserable than to be deprived of His grace, this promise ought to add no small encouragement to us to unite with each other in piety and holiness.⁵⁷⁰

For whoever either disregards the holy assemblies, or separates himself from fellow believers, and takes little interest in cultivating unity, by this alone makes it evident that he sets no value on the presence of Christ.

But we must take care, first of all, that those who desire to have Christ present with them assemble in His name; and we must likewise understand the meaning of this expression. For we perceive how ungodly men falsely, impudently, and wickedly cover their conspiracies with His sacred name.

If, therefore, we do not wish to expose Christ to their ridicule and, at the same time, to overturn what He has here promised, we must first of all know what is meant by this phrase.

It means that those who are assembled together, laying aside everything that hinders them from approaching Christ, must sincerely raise their desires to Him, yield obedience to His word, and allow themselves to be governed by the Spirit.

Where this simplicity prevails, there is no reason to fear that Christ will not make it manifest that it was not in vain for the assembly to meet in His name.

In this, the gross ignorance of the Papists is displayed, who exclaim that Councils could not err and that all ought to abide by their decisions because as often as two or three are assembled in the name of Christ, He is in the midst of them.

But we ought first of all to inquire whether those persons, whose faith, doctrine, and dispositions are in doubt, were assembled in the name of Christ.

When the Papists leave out or obscure this matter, who does not see that they dexterously confound the distinction between holy and profane assemblies, so that the power to do anything is taken from the Church and conveyed to the sworn enemies of Christ?

Let us therefore know that only the pious worshippers of God, who sincerely seek Christ, are encouraged to have the confident hope that He will never leave them.

Disregarding the illegitimate and failed Councils, which from their own invention have woven a web, let Christ alone, with the doctrine of His Gospel, always be exalted among us.

⁵⁷⁰ “A nous lier les uns avec les autres en toute sainctete et crainte de Dieu;” — “to link ourselves with each other in all holiness and fear of God.”;” — “to link ourselves with each other in all holiness and fear of God.”