This article starts a series of six articles on the topic of honoring our Lord Jesus Christ. While it is very true that the majority of people want to honor Christ, very few understand what it means to do so. In John 5:23, it is stated by Jesus “that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.” We learn from this verse three important points:
1) all men are to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father;
2) he that honors not the Son, honors not the Father;
3) to honor the Son is to honor the Father.
The first two are definitely stated while the third is implied. In John 5:21-22, Jesus claims equality with God. He also claims it in John 10:30: “I and my Father are one.” The apostle Paul makes a similar remark of the relationship between Jesus and the Father in Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”
To honor the Son is to honor the Father implied in John’s Gospel, but the same sentiment is found in Matthew 17:5, in which the Father says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.” We have a responsibility to hear the Son’s words and obey them. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Therefore, we need to have a good understanding of what it means to honor Christ, so that we might give honor to the Father as well. How do we honor Christ? We will examine some ways in which we can truly give honor to Christ over the next few weeks. Please examine each article in the series in light of the scriptures. We should wish to have said of us that which was said of the Bereans of Acts 17:11 and how they “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily to see whether those things were so.”
Wayne Rodgers
