By worshiping Jesus only, I mean worship God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. They are one God in three persons. No other person or being deserves worship.
Jesus told Satan that we are to worship and serve only God:
“Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” Matthew 4:10
“Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ Luke 4:8
He uses Deuteronomy 6:13 to support His position:
“Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.”
Jesus is God. He is part of the Godhead – Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. Paul mentions the Godhead together in many of his letters:
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 1 Corinthians 13:14
Jesus wasn’t directly asking Satan to worship Him. Satan knew He was the Son of God, but possibly did not understand all that implied. We know Satan saw Him as a man that could be tempted. Jesus, fully God and fully man, gave up some attributes of His deity (such as full knowledge of coming events):
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Matthew 24:36 Mark 16:32
Jesus came to earth to completely follow and worship God the Father:
“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” John 5:30
“Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.” John 7:16
Jesus received His full authority after He returned to heaven: “…since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7:39 But
Jesus understood He was God, and often claimed to be, especially as recorded in the gospel of John. Following are a few examples:
Jesus did miracles and called God His Father:
“For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:18
He has special authority entrusted to Him by the Father:
“For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 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.” John 5:21-23
Jesus told the Jews who were questioning Him:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” John 8:56-58
Jesus explained to His disciples exactly who he was:
“Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?…” John 14:9-10
His prayer to His Father is recorded in the gospel of John. It shows the position He had before He came to earth, why He was sent to earth and His relationship to His Father and eternal position:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” John 17:1-5
The Apostle Paul explains who Jesus is and why He came to earth and the eternal consequences of His coming:
“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 2 Philippians 2:6-11
The following passage by the Apostle Paul explains more than any other who Jesus is and His reason for coming to earth:
“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:15-20
Jesus said to His angel who said to the Apostle John who recorded these words:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8
The Apostle John said:
“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18
John records what Jesus Himself says:
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” Revelation 22:16
Another reason Jesus is the only One who deserves worship because He created the whole world and holds our life in His hands:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth…he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17:24-28
If we worship anything besides Jesus, we are worshipping Satan. The Bible says, as shown in the following passages, that behind an idol is a demon. Demons get their orders from Satan.
When the people worshiped idols they were sacrificing to demons:
“They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons which are not God–gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.” Deuteronomy 32:16-17
They worshiped and served the “gods of the people around them” which were “Baal and the Ashoreths”:
“They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They follow and worshiped various gods of the people around them. They provoked the Lord to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.” Judges 2:12-13
When they worshiped idols they “sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons”:
“They worshiped their idols which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.” Psalm 106:36-37
The Apostle Paul explains that when we sacrifice to idols, we are really sacrificing to demons:
“…Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons…” I Corinthians 10:14-22
An idol is just a piece of wood or stone (anything we worship is worth very little), but when we sacrifice to it with our time, talents, money or adoration, we are really sacrificing to demons. Idols are nothing except in their connection to demons:
“The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols and gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood–idols that cannot see or hear or walk.” Revelation 9:20
Idols (demons) try to trick us into worshiping and serving them:
“The idols speak deceit…” Zechariah 10:2
The desire of Satan was to get Jesus to worship him:
“‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow downand worship me.’” Matthew 4:9 “So if you will worship me, it will all be yours.” Luke 4:7
Satan’s goal is to get us to worship him. Nothing makes Satan happier than to see mankind fall into sin. Sinners, of whom Satan is the father, want to have company in their sin. Jesus tells the Jews who do not believe in Him:
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
In the following passage the dragon is the devil, and the beast is the Antichrist, the major embodiment of evil in the end times:
“Men worshipped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshipped the beast and asked, ‘Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?” Revelation 13:4
When men worship the beast they are really worshiping the dragon.
The consequences of worshiping idols is severe because those who worship idols will be like them:
“…Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” Psalm 115:2-8, 135:15-18
We are either slaves to God or to Satan. If we think that by doing what we want to do we are free, we are wrong. If we do not worship God (Jesus), we worship something else. If we do not worship the good, we naturally worship the evil. We become slaves of that evil:
“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” John 8:34 The Apostle Paul explains that we become the slaves of whom we worship or serve: “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Romans 6:16-18
We are free when we are slaves to Jesus:
“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”…“Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:31-36
The devil will promise a good life, but the pleasures he gives will “kill and destroy”. When we are slaves of Jesus we have a full, abundant life. Jesus said:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10
Jesus doesn’t need our complete allegiance, although He is pleased when we fellowship with Him. He is sufficient in Himself without our adoration. It is for our good that we worship Him only.
Jesus is the only One to be worshipped because He is the God who created us, knows us intimately and loves us unconditionally. Worship implies trust and obedience and is the least we can do for Him:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2