Both words for “worship” in the New Testament, proskuneo and latreuo, are used of worship rendered to the Father and the Son [proskuneo, in Jn. 4:23-24; Rev. 4:10, to the Father, and in Lk. 24:52 to the Son; laltreuo in Phil. 3:3; Heb. 9:14; (God), and Rev. 22:3; (the Lamb)].
When worship is offered to God (e.g., Rev. 19:l0; 22:9), it is sometimes offered to the Father, Son and Spirit in their undivided unity, while at other times the Father alone may be the Object or the Son (Ps. 45:6–quoted in Heb. 1:8) an instance of direct address.
We need to remember that the ultimate Source of all blessing is the Father (Eph. 5:20; Col. 1:l2), but that He cannot be worshiped by us except through the mediation of the Son (Eph. 2:18). Two dangers need to be guarded against: the overlooking of the necessity of this mediation and treating our access to the Father as an independent right, and, on the other hand, giving to the mediation of the Son too separate and substantial a character, by addressing praise and prayer directly to Him in a disproportionate degree. This is not in accordance with His own teaching (Jn. 16:23). To base a theory however, on this verse, as the heterodox Origen did, that it is improper to address prayer to Christ, or to suggest, as the Socinian, Belsham, that expressions of allegiance to Him were only proper when He was actually within sight, would certainly be wrong.
Stephen so addressed Him in Acts 7:59-60; (cf 1 Cor. 1:2) and Paul did so (2 Cor. 12:8-9; Acts 22:10). From these passages we conclude that in matters concerning His service it is proper to address the Lord Jesus in prayer, while on the other hand we instinctively turn to the Father in all matters that concern the family of God in general. It is evident that constant dependence on the Spirit is needed if our prayers are to have a right direction and our prayers are to be according to the examples given us in the New Testament.
As regards praise, we are to sing “to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19), whereas in the parallel passage (Col. 3:16; RV) we are to sing “unto God.” Out of 305 occurrences of the title “the Lord” found in Acts to Revelation, considerably more than one half, say 196, refer to the Lord Jesus. He is spoken of as “the Lord” more often than in any other way, and the weight of evidence is in favor of taking “the Lord” in Ephesians 5:19 as referring to Christ as it evidently does in verse 22. The reason is that He has been made “Lord” (Acts 2:36), that He is “our Lord” (1 Cor. 9:1), that there is specifically now “one Lord” even Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:6), that He is to us “Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3; 2 Cor. 4:5), “my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). This is not to deny that God is “the Lord,” but in the New Testament, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, that title belongs to the Son.
That it is according to the will of the Father that we should address the Son in songs of praise is clearly seen from the doxologies of the New Testament. There are no less than sixteen of these: those rendered to the Father or to God (Gal. 1:5; Rom. 11:36; 16:27: Phil. 4:20; Eph. 3:21; 1 Tim. 1:17; 1 Pet. 5:11; Jude 25; Rev. 7:12); those rendered “through Christ” (Rom. 16:27; 1 Pet. 5:11; Jude 25); those rendered to the Father in association with the Son (Rev. 5:13; 7:10); and those rendered to the Son alone (1 Tim. 6:16; 2 Tim. 4:18; Heb. 13:21; 2 Pet. 3:18; Rev. 1:6). No doubt these doxologies are in the third person, but so are those where the Father is the Object. The Son is God equal with the Father (Jn. l:1). This is “the true God and eternal life (1 Jn. 5:20). He is “over all, God blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5). So far from being jealous of the glory given to the Lord Jesus, the Father approves it as a glory given to Himself, for He wills that “all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father” (Jn. 5:23).
If in the Great Congregation, equal praise will be given to God and to the Lamb, it cannot be pleasing to God that we should withhold it here below from Him whose very presence constitutes a company of the redeemed, an assembly of God. Scripture itself, then, affords the pattern for us to follow, and we are safe only as we adhere to it. As with prayer, so also in the doxologies rendered to the Son, we have ample authority for offering our united praise to Him. Only as we are in dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God shall we be preserved from undue occupation with the Son to the exclusion of the Father and be conscious, when addressing the Father, of the need of the mediation of the Son.