What does Revelation 4:10 mean?
In response to the four living creatures' adoration of God, the twenty-four elders prostrate themselves before God and worship Him. John describes the one they worship as eternal: verses 9 and 10 seem to emphasize the unending life of the One being praised. His life has neither a beginning nor an end (John 1:3; Revelation 22:13). In an act of complete humility and submission they throw down their crowns at God's throne. By this act of worship, they acknowledge that only God is sovereign and deserving of worship.The crowns are likely the incorruptible crown, the crown of righteousness, the crown of life, and the crown of glory (1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4). The twenty-four elders show by casting their crowns before God that they owe all their achievements to God.
The apostle Paul acknowledged that no one can take credit for the spiritual results he sees. He wrote: "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God gives the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:5–7). He also wrote, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10).