John 5:23 - Printer Friendly

ESV: that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

NIV: that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

NASB: so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

CSB: so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

NLT: so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.

KJV: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

NKJV: that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Jesus makes an extremely important point here. This relates not only to salvation, but also to the idea of who Christ is and how He relates to God. In prior verses, Jesus has been pointing out how He is equal to God in various ways. These include having the same works (John 5:19), love (John 5:20), and judgment (John 5:22). Jesus has also claimed authority over life and death (John 5:21).

In this verse, Jesus makes a point which ties these other points together. Namely, that God expects the Son—Jesus—to be given honor, just as God is to be given honor. This makes sense, given all of the other qualities Jesus possesses. If Jesus really does have the power, love, judgment, and authority of God, then He deserves the same honor and respect as God. Because, of course, this means that Jesus actually is God.

This is also a crucial verse for our understanding of salvation. If Jesus is God, and is owed the same honor as God, then a person cannot reject the Son—Jesus Christ—and claim to be right with the Father. This matches other claims where Jesus plainly states that He is the one and only way to be reconciled with God (John 3:16, 36; 14:6). Calling Jesus only one of many ways to God is to dishonor Him, by calling Him a liar. Downgrading Him to something less than divine, or to merely a "good teacher" also dishonors Him. In short, those who reject the divinity of Christ are rejecting God Himself.

The next verse emphasizes this claim with the familiar phrase, "truly, truly," or "verily, verily."

John 5:16–29 begins Jesus' response to local religious leaders. After healing a man on the Sabbath, Jesus is attacked for violating traditions related to the Mosaic law and for claiming to be equal to God. In this passage, Jesus claims many of the attributes of God the Father. Among these are the power, judgment, love, and honor of God. Jesus also states that those who reject His message dishonor God and only those who believe Him will have eternal life. In the next passage, Jesus will support these claims by referring to various forms of evidence, all of which prove His ministry to be true.

Jesus again returns to Jerusalem, as required for the various feast days. While there, He heals a man who had been crippled for nearly forty years. Since this occurred on the Sabbath, local religious leaders are angry—more upset with Jesus for working on the Sabbath than amazed at His miracle. In response, Jesus offers an important perspective on evidence. Jesus refers to human testimony, scriptural testimony, and miracles as reasons to believe His declarations. Christ also lays claim to many of the attributes of God, making a clear claim to divinity.

Chapters 1 through 4 showed Jesus more or less avoiding publicity. Here, in chapter 5, He will begin to openly challenge the local religious leaders. This chapter is Jesus' first major answer to His critics in this Gospel. The fact that Jesus is willing to heal on the Sabbath sets up a theme of His upcoming disagreements with the Pharisees. Jesus also provides important perspective on the relationship between evidence and faith, which He will expand on in later chapters. This chapter also establishes a key point made by Jesus' critics: His claims to be God.

The gospel of John was written by the disciple John, decades later than the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The author assumes that a reader is already familiar with the content of these other works. So, John presents a different perspective, with a greater emphasis on meaning. John uses seven miracles—which he calls “signs”—in order to prove that Jesus is, in fact, God incarnate. Some of the most well-known verses in all of the Bible are found here. None is more famous than the one-sentence summary of the gospel found in John 3:16.