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I believe that this phrase has rich meanings beyond it's context which happens to be church discipline. The 2 or 3 gathered exist in this passage as a subset of a church - not as the whole church - involved in a private disciplinary situation. Being private, it is naturally small. It's small because of the hope of settling things without getting other church members involved.
I wonder if folks in that day had enough grace and integrity to admit they were wrong. That rarely happens in today's churches. Most offenders just leave. On the internet - you can forget it, baby. Instead, get ready for a barrage of "that's not what I really said" or "that's not what I really meant" or "you're jus' takin' everything out of context" or "you're worse than the scribes and pharisees" or "your attitude is sooo bad" etc, etc, etc.
God's people could have been called by many names: those who trust, those who pray, those who obey, etc. Instead, the most common name, church, has to do with being intentionally assembled. 'Church' originally meant gathering and wasn't even a religious word till Jesus "upgraded" it. That upgrade consisted of two letters - MY. Fascinating, huh?
Jesus will never leave us even if we are just one. It is true, in my opinion, that two persons could and do constitute a church, but is that what is really being taught in Matthew 18? I seriously doubt it.
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It's funny, this weekend I was just thinking about this. I asked myself, "I wonder what the context is for this commonly used scripture?". I think I am going to have to study this for myself again. Thanks for bringing this up.
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