Albert Barnes Commentary John 5:23

"that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent him." — John 5:23 (ASV)

That all men should honor, etc. To honor is to esteem, reverence, praise, do homage to. We honor one when we ascribe to him in our hearts, and words, and actions the praise and obedience which are due to him. We honor God when we obey him and worship him properly. We honor the Son when we esteem him to be as he is; when we have correct views and feelings toward him. As he is declared to be God (John 1:1), as he here says he has power and authority equal with God, so we honor him when we regard him as such. The primitive Christians are described by Pliny, in a letter to the Emperor Trajan, as meeting together to sing hymns to Christ as God. So we honor him properly when we regard him as possessed of wisdom, goodness, power, eternity, omniscience—equal with God.

Even as. To the same extent; in the same manner. Since the Son is to be honored EVEN AS the Father, it follows that he must be equal with the Father. To honor the Father must denote religious homage, or the rendering of that honor which is due to God; so to honor the Son must also denote religious homage. If our Savior here did not intend to teach that he ought to be worshiped, and to be esteemed as equal with God, it would be difficult to teach it by any language which we could use.

He who does not honor the Son. He who does not believe on him, and render to him the homage which is his due as the equal of God.

Does not honor the Father. Does not worship and obey the Father, the first person of the Trinity—that is, does not worship God. He may imagine that he worships God, but there is no God but the God subsisting as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He who withholds proper homage from one, withholds it from all. He who should refuse to honor the Father, could not be said to honor God; and in the like manner, he who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father. This appears further from the following considerations:

1. The Father wills that the Son should be honored. He who refuses to do it disobeys the Father.
2. They are equal. He who denies the one denies also the other.
3. The same feeling that leads us to honor the Father will also lead us to honor the Son, for he is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,Hebrews 1:3.
4. The evidence of the existence of the Son is the same as that of the Father. He has the same wisdom, goodness, omnipresence, truth, power.

And from these verses we may learn—

1. That those who do not render proper homage to Jesus Christ do not worship the true God.
2. There is no such God as the infidel professes to believe in. There can be but one God; and if the God of the Bible is the true God, then all other gods are false gods.
3. Those who withhold proper homage from Jesus Christ, who do not honor him EVEN AS they honor the Father, cannot be Christians.
4. One evidence of piety is when we are willing to render proper praise and homage to Jesus Christ—to love him, and serve and obey him, with all our hearts.

5. As a matter of fact, it may be added that those who do not honor the Son do not worship God at all. The infidel has no form of worship; he has no place of secret prayer, no temple of worship, no family altar. Who ever yet heard of an infidel that prayed?

   Where do such men build houses of worship? Where do they meet to praise God? Nowhere. As certainly as we hear the name infidel, we are certain at once that we hear the name of a man who has no form of religion in his family, who never prays in secret, and who will do nothing to maintain the public worship of God.

   Account for it as men may, it is a fact that no one can dispute, that it is only those who do honor to the Lord Jesus that have any form of the worship of God, or that honor him; and their veneration for God is just in proportion to their love for the Redeemer—just as they honor him.