This Week’s Scripture & Reflection: John 5:22-23
In certain relational contexts, it is very difficult to dishonor one party without also dishonoring the other. One primary example is marriage. In this God-ordained covenantal union, the husband and wife join together and become one flesh! If one were to dishonor the husband, the wife would also be dishonored, and if one were to dishonor the wife, the husband would also be dishonored.
Similarly, this is how many individuals who profess to believe in God treat His Son, Jesus Christ! Various religions claim to believe in and honor God the Father, yet they reject His Son, not necessarily His existence but His deity as God in the flesh! In John 5, Jesus profoundly declares that “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (cf. John 5:23). God the Father sent Jesus His Son into the world to reconcile the world back to Himself through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross and to provide salvation to those who believe in Him!
To only acknowledge Jesus as a Prophet and a Great Teacher, as some religious faiths do, is to reject His divine essence and the totality of His earthly mission! And rejecting the deity of Jesus Christ is the highest form of dishonor, not only to Jesus Himself but equivalently to God the Father! How could we ever claim to honor the Father yet reject the One whom He sent to save us?
Jesus the Son and God the Father are one (cf. John 17:22); therefore, it is impossible to only acknowledge the divine essence, nature, and authority of one and not the other! Even more so, access to God the Father can only be obtained through Jesus Christ (cf. John 14:6). Honoring God, genuinely and reverently, first begins by honoring the Person through whom He has revealed Himself (cf. John 14:8-9). The more individuals grasp and believe this truth, the more true conversions will result!