---
title: John 5:23
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-5-23/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/john-5-23.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: John 5:23
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# John 5:23

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> so 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.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "so 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."

## JW Usage

The Watchtower teaches that Jesus deserves honour as God's chief representative but not equal worship — worship belongs exclusively to Jehovah. The verse is read as honour-giving rather than worship-giving, with "just as" softened into "in a manner appropriate to the Son's lower position." A 2013 Watchtower states that those "who use Jesus' name in their worship but fail to give the greater honour to Jehovah do not manifest a genuine love of the light."

## Protestant Usage

The Greek kathōs — "just as" — creates an equation: honour given to the Son must match the honour given to the Father in kind and degree. How does a Witness honour the Father? Through worship, prayer, praise, and the giving of the heart. Kathōs demands the same for the Son. If Jesus is a creature, commanding equal divine honour is commanding idolatry. If he is God, the command makes perfect sense. And the negative clause closes the door: "whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father." Withholding equal honour from the Son means a Witness is not truly honouring Jehovah either, by Jesus' own statement. The verse is one of the strongest deity-of-Christ proof-texts the NWT itself preserves intact — and it bypasses the proskuneō / obeisance debate entirely because the Greek word here is timaō ("honour"), not proskuneō.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Honour the Son Just As You Honour the Father](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john5-equal-honour.md) — John 5:22-23 / Isaiah 42:8 / Revelation 5:13-14 [Deity of Christ]
- [Sharing a Role Is Not Sharing Who God Is](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/god-alone-shared-or-identity.md) — Isaiah 44:24 / 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 / Job 38:7 — when 'God alone' texts allow others in, and when they don't [Deity of Christ]