5. Jesus Is Worthy: Honoring Christ, Worshiping God

Jesus is worthy of extraordinary honor.

He is God’s Son, Messiah, Savior, Lord, King, Lamb, and the human being whom God has exalted above every other. Scripture calls Christians to love him, follow him, obey him, confess him as Lord, and give him glory and honor. Revelation portrays heaven itself singing his praise.

I do not believe recognizing that Jesus is not God should diminish any of this. If anything, I believe it allows us to honor Jesus for who Scripture actually says he is.

At the same time, Scripture consistently distinguishes the honor given to Jesus from worship of the God whom Jesus himself worships. This raises an important question: when English Bibles say that people “worshiped” Jesus, does that prove that they understood him to be God?

The first apparent instance of Jesus being “worshiped” occurs in Matthew 2:2:

“Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

This was said by the Magi as they sought Jesus, the King of the Jews. It is the first of many New Testament passages that can appear to describe the worship of Jesus (see also Matthew 2:8, 11; Matthew 14:26–33; Matthew 28:9, 17; Luke 24:52; John 9:38; Revelation 5). If Jesus is not God, why is he “worshiped” in the Gospels and Revelation when only God is worthy of worship?

This question initially seemed decisive to me. Jesus is clearly “worshiped” in multiple English translations of the New Testament. The Magi “worship” him in Matthew 2, the disciples “worship” him on several occasions, the healed man in John 9 “worships” him, and Revelation 5 contains extraordinary praise of the Lamb. I once concluded that this settled the question: if Jesus is worshiped, and only God should be worshiped, then Jesus must be God. The rest of my questions seemed secondary.

James D. G. Dunn’s Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? The New Testament Evidence, along with material from the Biblical Unitarian and One God Worship blogs, caused me to reconsider that conclusion. I no longer think the exaltation of Jesus in Scripture proves that Jesus is God.

What Does “Worship” Mean?

The biblical words translated “worship” have a broader range of meaning than the English word normally carries today. Christians rightly understand that only God should be worshiped as God. Yet the Hebrew and Greek words that English Bibles sometimes translate “worship” can also describe bowing before, paying homage to, or showing profound respect toward human beings. Therefore, the English word worship by itself cannot settle whether a particular person is being treated as God. Context must determine what kind of honor is being given.

This is especially important because the modern Christian word worship usually implies an act that belongs exclusively to God. When the same Greek verb can describe homage toward both God and human beings, translating it “worship” in one context and “bow down” in another can obscure that fact. In some passages concerning Jesus, words such as honored, paid homage to, or bowed before may communicate the range of the Greek more clearly to a modern reader.

According to the Complete Word Study Dictionary, the Greek verb proskyneō, which is the word used in the New Testament for worship of Jesus, can mean “to worship, do obeisance, show respect, fall or prostrate before,” and to do reverence or homage to someone, commonly by prostrating oneself. This kind of proskyneō is not reserved for God alone (Zodhiates, s.v. “proskyneō”).

For example, in Matthew 18:26 a servant falls before his human lord and proskyneōs him. English translations commonly render the action “fell on his knees,” “fell down,” or “begged,” rather than “worshiped.” In Revelation 3:9, Jesus says that others will “bow down” before the feet of Christians. Again, the verb is proskyneō. If the use of proskyneō toward Jesus automatically proved that Jesus is God, then the same word used toward the human lord in Matthew 18:26 and toward Christians in Revelation 3:9 would create an obvious problem, as those individuals are not God. The word itself does not establish deity. It describes an act of reverence or homage whose significance has to be determined by context.

The same pattern exists in the Old Testament. The Greek proskyneō corresponds broadly to the Hebrew shachah, a word frequently translated “worship” when directed to God but also used for bowing before human beings. Jacob bowed before Esau (Genesis 33:3), and Joseph’s brothers bowed before Joseph (Genesis 42:6; 43:28). These men were obviously not being identified as God. The physical act could express worship of God, but it could also express honor, submission, or homage toward a human being.

Jesus Is Worthy of Extraordinary Honor

Distinguishing Jesus from God does not mean reducing Jesus to an ordinary religious teacher.

God has exalted him extraordinarily. Jesus is the Messiah, Son of God, Savior, Lord, King, Judge, Great High Priest, and Lamb who gave his life for the world. God raised him from the dead, seated him at His right hand, gave him authority over heaven and earth, and made him Lord and Christ.

Philippians 2 says that God highly exalted Jesus and gave him the name above every name, so that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Revelation 5 portrays heaven proclaiming the slain Lamb worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing.

Christians should praise Jesus.

Jesus is worthy of our love, gratitude, allegiance, obedience, honor, and praise. The question is not whether Jesus deserves extraordinary devotion. He does.

The question is whether the New Testament identifies that honor as worship of Jesus as God, or whether Jesus is exalted as God’s uniquely chosen Son and Messiah while worship in the ultimate sense remains directed to the God who exalted him.

John 9: Did the Healed Man Worship Jesus as God?

John 9 is especially important because the man healed by Jesus eventually “worships” him. But the chapter itself tells us how this man understands Jesus. Earlier, he calls Jesus “a prophet” (John 9:17). He then argues that Jesus’ ability to heal demonstrates his relationship with God:

“We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.” (John 9:31)

The man’s argument is not that Jesus healed him because Jesus was God. His argument is that God listened to Jesus because Jesus was from God and did God’s will. Later, after Jesus reveals himself more fully, the man believes and proskyneōs him (John 9:38). In the context of the chapter, that action does not require the conclusion that he suddenly identifies Jesus as the God whom Jesus himself serves. It can naturally describe profound homage to God’s Messiah.

John 4: Whom Did Jesus Say to Worship?

John 4 provides one of Jesus’ clearest teachings about worship. In his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus does not tell her that true worshipers will worship him. He says:

“The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23–24)

Jesus identifies the Father as the One being worshiped. Even more strikingly, Jesus includes himself among those who worship: “We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). As a Jew, Jesus speaks from within the worshiping community rather than identifying himself as its God. He then identifies himself to the woman as the Christ (John 4:25–26). When the Samaritans come to believe, they identify him as “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).

If Jesus is God, this teaching about worship requires serious explanation. Why, when explicitly discussing whom true worshipers worship, does Jesus direct worship to the Father and include himself among the worshipers? This does not by itself answer every Christological question, but it is difficult to reconcile with the idea that every act of proskyneō toward Jesus must mean worship of Jesus as God.

Matthew 14: The Disciples Honor the Son of God

In Matthew 14:26–33, after Jesus walks on the water and the wind ceases, the disciples proskyneō him and say, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew explicitly tells us the confession associated with their act: Jesus is God’s Son. The text does not record them saying, “You are God.”

That does not diminish the extraordinary honor given to Jesus. He is God’s Messiah and Son, and Scripture repeatedly commands that he be honored. But honor given to the Son can ultimately glorify the Father who exalted him. Philippians 2:11 gives exactly this pattern: every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord “to the glory of God the Father.” Jesus is glorified, and through his glorification God is glorified.

Other New Testament Words for Worship

The distinction becomes even more interesting when we look beyond proskyneō. Another important worship word in the New Testament is latreuō, meaning “to serve” or “render religious service.” It is used in Matthew 4:10 and Luke 4:8 when Jesus says, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Significantly, in the New Testament, latreuō and the related noun latreia are used for religious service directed toward God—or, negatively, toward false gods—but they are never explicitly used for cultic service offered to Jesus. This distinction is important because proskyneō, the word often translated “worship” when directed toward Jesus, has a much broader range and can also describe homage given to human beings. Thus the New Testament possesses vocabulary specifically associated with religious service to deity, yet it does not use that vocabulary for service offered to Jesus (Dunn 14–17).

Another verb, sebomai, means to revere or worship. It is frequently used of those who worship God, and Acts 19:27 uses it of the pagan worship of Artemis. The important point for this discussion is not that sebomai is reserved exclusively for the true God, but that the New Testament does not use it to describe worship directed to Jesus (Dunn 16–17).

Dunn summarizes the pattern this way: “The language of worship is used almost exclusively for God, though occasionally for Jesus. But a more common usage is the giving of thanks to God for what Christ has done or through Christ or in the name of Christ” (Dunn 21). The point is significant: the New Testament certainly gives Jesus extraordinary honor, but its worship vocabulary still distinguishes between the homage given to Christ and the religious service characteristically rendered to God.

Dunn continues: “Worship as such a term is rarely used in reference to Christ. It appears most clearly in the wonder of realization that God had raised Jesus from the dead, and in some of the worship offered to the Lamb in Revelation. Cultic worship or service (latreuein, latreia) as such is never offered to Christ, and other worship terms are used only in relation to God. In the case of the most common words for praise and thanksgiving (eucharistein), they are never offered to Christ” (Dunn 27). That pattern is striking in a Christian culture in which Jesus can sometimes receive as much or even more direct devotional attention than God the Father.

Prayer and Hymns

The dominant New Testament pattern of prayer is likewise directed to God, particularly the Father. Jesus taught his disciples, “When you pray, say, ‘Father…’” (Luke 11:2), and his own prayers are directed to God. There are a small number of passages that Christians understand differently and sometimes interpret as prayer addressed to Jesus; I address those passages in a later post in this section: [Implication 3- Should Christians pray to Jesus?](/post/is-jesus-god-part-17-implication-3-praying-to-jesus-and-knowing-him)

The same God-through-Christ pattern appears throughout early Christian praise. Christ is frequently the subject of hymnic material because of what God accomplished through him. Philippians 2:6–11 culminates in Jesus’ universal lordship bringing “glory to God the Father.” Colossians 1:15–20 exalts Christ as the one through whom God accomplishes reconciliation. The exaltation of Jesus does not compete with the glory of God; it serves it.

What About Revelation 5?

Revelation 5 contains perhaps the strongest example of Jesus receiving heavenly praise. The Lamb is sung to directly in Revelation 5:9–10 and 5:12, and Revelation 5:13 joins “him who sits on the throne” and “the Lamb” in a single acclamation of blessing, honor, glory, and power. This is extraordinary exaltation, and it should not be minimized.

But Revelation itself also distinguishes how God and the Lamb are described and why each is declared worthy. Revelation 4 centers entirely on the One seated on the throne. He is called “the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come” (Revelation 4:8) and “our Lord and God” (4:11). He is declared worthy because he created all things: “because of your will they existed and were created.”

Revelation 5 then introduces the Lamb. Jesus is declared worthy for a different stated reason: he was slain, and by his blood he purchased people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation (Revelation 5:9–10). He made them a kingdom and priests to our God. The Lamb is therefore exalted because of his faithful sacrificial work, while the hymn itself continues to distinguish him from God.

This distinction continues in verse 13: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb…” Revelation does not identify the Lamb as the One sitting on the throne in these chapters; it presents the throne-sitter and the Lamb together and distinguishes them. The Lamb receives astonishing praise, honor, glory, and power. But the question remains: does such exaltation mean that the Lamb is himself God, or is God exalting his Messiah to the highest possible place beside him?

Revelation 5:14 is especially significant because there is a textual variant at the end of the verse. Modern critical editions and the Majority Text read simply that “the elders fell down and worshiped,” without explicitly stating whom they worshiped. Another textual tradition, represented by the Textus Receptus, continues: “and worshiped the One who lives forever and ever” (Nestle-Aland, Rev. 5:14; Scrivener, Rev. 5:14). This longer reading closely parallels Revelation 4:10, where “the One who lives forever and ever” is clearly God, the One seated on the throne.

Because the stronger manuscript traditions underlying modern critical editions omit the longer words, I do not think we should claim that the longer reading certainly represents the original text. But that does not strengthen the argument that Revelation 5:14 proves Jesus is worshiped as God. The shorter reading leaves the object of the final act of worship unstated; the longer reading explicitly directs that worship to “the One who lives forever and ever,” language Revelation has just used for God, the One seated on the throne. In other words, neither textual form requires the conclusion that the elders are worshiping Jesus as God.

This is important. Revelation 5 unquestionably gives Jesus extraordinary heavenly praise, honor, glory, and power. But Revelation 5:14 itself cannot safely be used as proof that Jesus is being worshiped as God. On the shorter critical reading, the object of proskyneō is not named. On the longer reading, the object is explicitly identified in language associated with God. The textual evidence therefore does not erase the distinction Revelation 4–5 repeatedly makes between God, the One seated on the throne, and the Lamb whom God has exalted. If anything, the variant reinforces the need to distinguish the extraordinary honor given to Jesus from the worship of God Himself.

The stronger observation is the structure of Revelation 4–5 as a whole. God, the One on the throne, is worshiped as Creator. The Lamb is then introduced, declared worthy because he was slain, and praised for purchasing people for God. Finally, the throne-sitter and the Lamb are praised together. This fits beautifully with Jesus’ prayer in John 17:1: “Father… glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” Revelation 5 portrays the Son glorified on an almost unimaginable scale—but that glorification ultimately magnifies God.

How Should Christians Honor Jesus Today?

This raises a difficult practical question: would Jesus agree with forms of Christian worship in which he effectively replaces God as the primary object of devotion?

Jesus was a Jewish monotheist who affirmed the Shema: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29). Jesus calls God his God, worships God, prays to God, obeys God, and teaches others to worship the Father. At the same time, Scripture gives Jesus extraordinary honor and glory because God has made him Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36).

Jesus should therefore receive the honor God has given him. But Scripture itself shows where that honor ultimately points: “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). Jesus is the supreme human image and agent of God—the human face through whom God has revealed himself to the world. And the goal for Christians is likewise conformity to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29).

Christians themselves will “obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 2:14). At Christ’s revelation, believers will receive “praise and glory and honor” (1 Peter 1:7). We will be like Christ (1 John 3:2), and those God justifies he also glorifies (Romans 8:30). Scripture therefore does not treat glory, honor, praise, or even proskyneō as words that by themselves identify someone as God.

Conclusion

The New Testament therefore does not force us to choose between honoring Jesus magnificently and worshiping God alone.

Jesus is worthy.

He is worthy of love, gratitude, allegiance, obedience, honor, praise, and glory. He is the Messiah whom God sent, the Son who faithfully obeyed Him, the Lamb who gave his life for the world, the Lord whom God raised and exalted, and the King through whom God will restore creation.

But Jesus himself points beyond himself to God. He worships God, prays to God, calls Him “my God,” and teaches others to worship Him. Even Jesus’ universal exaltation culminates “to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).

Honoring Jesus rightly therefore does not compete with worshiping God.

We honor Jesus because God exalted him.

We praise Jesus because of what he faithfully accomplished.

We follow Jesus because he shows us the Way to God.

And in honoring the Son whom God sent, we ultimately glorify the God whom Jesus himself loves, obeys, worships, and reveals.

Jesus is not God. And Jesus is worthy.

Honor Jesus.

Worship God.