| Commentary |
Jesus now reveals the reason that all judgment
has been given to Him: So that all will honor the Son just
as they do the Father. This statement must have taken the Jews'
breath away. No prophet or angel had ever uttered such words.
It seems inconceivable that any creature could ever do so. Even a
powerful angelic being or a lesser, created "god," sent to earth
to represent the Father would never say that judgment had been given to
him so that all would honor him equally with the Father.
Honor him, perhaps, but certainly not to the same degree as that rendered
to the Almighty God who created him. To claim equality of honor with
the Father - indeed, to claim equality with the Father in any area
whatsoever - is a tacit claim to equality with God. It would be so
in any context, but it is particularly cogent in one in which Jesus is
answering the Jews' accusations of blasphemy (verse 18).
The claim that the Father has placed all judgment in the hands of the
Son because the Father wishes all to honor the Son just as they
honor Him places the Son well outside the role of a mere representative or
functionary. While ambassadors in ancient times were received as
though they were the king they represented, they were not accorded equal
honor, and certainly would have never claimed it for themselves.
The honor given the Son, however, does not detract from that given the
Father. The implication here is that honoring the Son also honors
the Father - for while "every knee will bow" at the name of
Jesus, it will be to the glory of God the Father (Philippians
2:9-11). The loving unity of Father and Son, which Jesus has been
explaining throughout this passage, points to the fundamental truth that
the One God has revealed Himself completely in the person of His
one and only Son, and this complete revelation is only possible because
the Father and the Son are essentially One. Thus, by giving all
judgment to the Son, the Father wishes that all would honor the Son as
they do Him - for the Father knows that His glory - which He will not
share with another (Isaiah 42:8) - is not compromised when shared with His
Divine Son.
This statement is followed by one even more breathtaking:
"He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent
Him." Jesus is making reverence of the Father dependent
upon reverencing Him. Those who would weaken the first half of this
verse are still confronted by the second. For regardless of how one
might wish to understand "honor" or "even as," Jesus
says here that those who do not honor Him fail to honor the
Father. We may consider whether one who honors the Father, but does
not honor Abraham, or Moses, or even one of God's angels, could reasonably
be said to fail to honor the Father.
In a theistic universe, such a statement belongs to one who is
himself to be addressed as God (cf. 20:28) or to stark insanity. The
one who utters such things is to be dismissed with pity or scorn, or
worshipped as Lord. If with much current scholarship we retreat to seeing
in such material less the claims of the Son than the beliefs and witness
of the Evangelist and his church, the same options confront us.
Either John is supremely deluded and must be dismissed as a fool, or his
witness is true and Jesus is to be ascribed the honors due to God
alone. There is no rational middle ground (Carson,
p. 255).
But all things now, and at the final judgment, are committed to the
Son, purposely that all men might honour the Son, as they honour the
Father; and every one who does not thus honour the Son, whatever he may
think or pretend, does not honour the Father who sent him (Henry).
|
| Other
Views Considered |
Jehovah's Witnesses
objection: An
independent Jehovah's Witness website called The Trinity Exposed Website (TEW)
wrote the following comments about this verse. This website has
since been removed, most likely in response to Watchtower guidelines
regarding the Internet. However, this argument is still current
among some Witness apologists.
Beginning of TEW JOHN 5:23:
Some say that this verse implies that Jesus is Jehovah because we are
instructed to "honor" the Son "just as" we honor the
Father. Is this true? Because we are to honor the Son "just
as" we honor the Father, does this make Jesus Jehovah? Some will
say YES!! They even take it a step further. They say that the Greek word
here rendered "just as" means "to the exact degree,
perfectly the same." Is this true? Let's take a look.
First let it be said, that it does not say to "worship
the Son just as we worship the Father." Yet , still some
imagine it means this. The reality is though, that it says to
"honor" the Son. What does this mean? The Greek word
translated "honor" is "timao."
It means to "hold in estimation, respect, honour, to
revere." (The Analytical Greek Lexicon by Moulton pg. 405,
Strong's Greek Dictionary pg. 72) It is also used at Matthew 15:4 of the
way you should view your parents: "For
example, God said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Let him
that reviles father or mother end up in death.'
Christians certainly are not to "worship" their parents are
they?
Next, the Greek word translated "just as" is "kathos."
Just what does this word mean? Does it mean to the "exact
degree?" No. This word means "according as, in the manner
that." ( Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words pg.
385; The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised 1978, by Moulton pg. 208)
Notice it does not say to the same exact degree. We see proof that
"kathos" literally cannot mean "to the same
exact degree" in 1John 2:6 where it appears:
"He that says he remains in union with him is under obligation
himself also to go on walking just as that one walked."
This verse is telling us that Christians need to walk just as
Christ, the perfect man walked. Now the question is: "Can anyone
walk "exactly as, to the exact degree" that Jesus
walked? Are we perfect? Better still, if Jesus is God, how can we walk
"exactly to the same degree" as God? We cannot!
Clearly then, to honor the son just as we honor the Father does
not mean that Jesus is Jehovah.
End of TEW John 5:23 (copied September, 1999).
Response: The
first point raised, regarding TIMAW, is something of a red-herring.
I am unaware of any commentator of note who renders TIMAW
"worship," or suggests that this verse teaches us to worship
the Son just as we worship the Father (though other verses point us in
that direction). Most, however, rightly associate giving honor
equally to the Father and Son as valuing, esteeming, or adoring the Father
and Son equally, and thus Jesus is answering his accusers with yet another
tacit claim to equality with God, though - once again - in such as way as
to demonstrate His unity with the Father.
The inseparability of the adoration of the Father from
that of the Son prohibits any notion that 'next to' and 'besides' God as
Father, the Son as 'a second party' must be honored as God. For by
giving all things into the hands of the Son, the Father does not retreat
to a position behind the Son, but posits himself as present in the
Son. God is not two, but one (Ridderbos,
p. 197).
The definitions of TIMAW provided by TEW are essentially
correct, though TIMAW can carry the connotation of "valuing
someone" (cf., Matthew 27:9; so Vine, Moulton
& Milligan, Thayer, and BAGD). Thus, in addition to
honoring, esteeming, and reverencing the Son, it may also be that we are to value
the Son just as we value the Father. The key to interpreting the text, however, is in the term
KATHWS, for if it does not mean "just as, to the same degree
as," then even if TIMAW meant worship, it could still be argued that
the Son is not equal with the Father. On the other hand, if KATHWS does
mean "just as, to the same degree as," then Jesus telling us to reverence
the Son just as we reverence the Father is yet another proclamation of His
essential equality with God.
Introducing Matthew 15:4 at this point really does nothing
more that take attention away from the immediate context, for while we are
indeed told to "honor" our parents, we are not told to do so
"just as" we honor the Father. Our parents do not
"work" on the Sabbath, see everything their Father in Heaven is
doing, do whatever the Father does, give life to whom they will, or claim
all judgment has been given into their hands. While TEW's point
regarding Christians not worshipping their parents demonstrates that TIMAW
does not literally mean "worship," it
fails to address the difference in reverence and honor the Bible teaches
us to render to our parents and that which we render to God. We must
reverence God above all others, as the Jews understood and believed; which
is why Jesus' call to honor the Son just as the Father would have struck
them as yet another claim to Deity.
The lexical evidence for KATHWS meaning "just
as" has been presented in the Grammatical Analysis, above.
TEW's citation of Vine is
incomplete, as Vine also lists "even
as" under KATHWS. Further the Watchtower's own New World
Translation renders KATHWS as "just as" in both John 5:23
and 1 John 2:6. Regarding TEW's comments on 1 John 2:6, Dave Sherrill writes:
Our inability to attain perfection does not circumvent
or short-circuit our obligation before God to strive for it. In such a
situation, our sin magnifies our need for, and the glory of, our Savior.
We need a Savior who can save us from our own "righteousnesses",
tainted as they are by sin, as much as from our sin. Such a
Savior is one we can truly honor "just as we honor the Father."
Jesus Christ is such a Savior. He is the only Savior (Dave Sherrill, John
5:23, http://www.pionet.net/~cultrsch/trinityjohn.htm).
Throughout his first epistle, John exhorts us to live as Christ
did. John writes that if we are in Christ we will not continue to
sin (3:6-7), we will keep His commandments (5:2), and that "love is
perfected in us" (4:17). Though we will never be
completely like Christ, God
promises us that He will complete the work He started in us (Philippians
1:6) and conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), so that we
may - someday in Glory - live without sin, be perfect in love, and walk
"just as" He walked." Thus, KATHWS in 1 John 2:6
means precisely the same thing it does in this verse: "Just as,
even as." Thayer and BAGD list both 1 John 2:6 and John 5:23 as
examples of this meaning.
In an another book written by the Fourth Evangelist, we
have a scene in which every creature renders the Father equal honor with
the Son, and the context points clearly to that honor being a part of
worship:
And every created thing which is in heaven
and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in
them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the
Lamb, be blessing and honor [TIMH] and
glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures
kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped
(Rev 5:13-14).
We may note that in this passage, the Father and Son are distinguished
from "every created thing" (PAN KTISMA
- "that which is created [by God], creature [created by God] ... every
creature in heaven Rv 5:13" [BAGD]).
If every creature 'created by God' honors the Father and the Son,
the Son cannot be 'created by God,' as the Watchtower teaches.
Finally, the Watchtower itself teaches that both the
Father and the Son should receive the "greatest honor:"
By reason of his being Creator,
Jehovah God is worthy of the greatest honor from all his intelligent
creatures. (Rev 4:11) .... Whereas
Jehovah God and his Son merit the greatest honor, there are
relationships among humans that also call for honor (Insight
1, pp. 1135-36).
Thus, it seems that the
independent apologist who authored TEW's entry on this verse (as well as
anyone who continues to advance the interpretation presented there) is
somewhat out of step with the teaching of his Organization on this
subject. However, we may ask whether Witnesses who follow the
Watchtower's teaching (rather than an independent apologist) do
in fact honor the Son equally with the Father, and if they do, how they
reconcile giving the greatest honor to Jehovah God and to one of
his creatures, given that the Watchtower says that Jehovah God is
deserving of the greatest honor because He is the Creator.
|