Knowing the Father and the Son

# Knowing the Father and the Son *Why accurate knowledge of Jehovah and Jesus is the heart of everlasting life.* There is a phrase the apostle Paul uses again and again in his letters. Fourteen times across his writings it comes up. Peter uses it too. It is the Greek word *epígnōsis* — translated by the *New World Translation* as **accurate knowledge**. And when you sit down and lay these scriptures side by side, something powerful becomes clear: Jehovah does not want us simply to know *about* Him. He wants us to know Him accurately. He wants us to know His Son accurately. And He has told us that our very life depends on it. > *"This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ."* — **John 17:3** Jesus himself said that. Not just *knowing* — **coming to know**. A continuous, deepening, accurate knowledge of two distinct persons: the only true God (the Father, Jehovah), and the one whom He sent (His Son, Jesus Christ). Jesus did not place himself inside his Father's identity. He placed himself alongside — as the One *sent* by the only true God. That distinction is not a small thing. It is the foundation of everything we are about to explore. This article is for anyone who loves Jehovah and loves His Son and wants to understand more deeply **who the Father truly is**, **who the Son truly is**, **who the Son was before he came to earth**, and **how we are meant to honor the Son while worshipping the Father** — giving thanks for what they have done together on our behalf. We will let Scripture itself build the picture, verse upon verse, until the image becomes unmistakable. --- ## 1. The Scriptures That Demand Accurate Knowledge Before we look at who the Father and Son are, we need to feel the weight of what Scripture says about **knowing them accurately**. These are not optional verses. They are commands, prayers, and warnings from inspired writers. Read them slowly: > *"whose will is that all sorts of people should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth."* — **1 Timothy 2:4** Jehovah's will — His active desire — is that people come to **accurate** knowledge. Not approximate. Not culturally inherited. Not what feels comfortable. Accurate. > *"and clothe yourselves with the new personality, which through accurate knowledge is being made new according to the image of the One who created it."* — **Colossians 3:10** The new personality — the Christlike self we are meant to put on — is renewed *through* accurate knowledge. Without that accuracy, the renewal stalls. > *"until we all attain to the oneness of the faith and of the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to being a full-grown man, attaining the measure of stature that belongs to the fullness of the Christ."* — **Ephesians 4:13** Notice carefully: **accurate knowledge of the Son of God**. Paul does not say accurate knowledge of "God the Son," a phrase that appears nowhere in Scripture. He says Son *of* God — a relational identity that places Jesus as the Son brought forth by the Father. > *"so as to walk worthily of Jehovah in order to please him fully as you go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God."* — **Colossians 1:10** > *"And this is what I continue praying, that your love may abound still more and more with accurate knowledge and full discernment."* — **Philippians 1:9** Love is not separate from accurate knowledge. Paul prays they grow together. Love without accuracy drifts into sentimentality; accuracy without love becomes cold doctrine. Both together produce a living faith. > *"That is also why from the day we heard of it, we have never stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the accurate knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual comprehension."* — **Colossians 1:9** > *"For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left."* — **Hebrews 10:26** A sobering warning. Accurate knowledge brings responsibility. Once we truly see, we are accountable for what we do with what we have seen. > *"instructing with mildness those not favorably disposed. Perhaps God may give them repentance leading to an accurate knowledge of truth."* — **2 Timothy 2:25** > *"For if these things exist in you and overflow, they will prevent you from being either inactive or unfruitful regarding the accurate knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."* — **2 Peter 1:8** > *"For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to accurate knowledge."* — **Romans 10:2** This verse should stop every sincere reader. **Zeal is not enough.** Paul acknowledges their devotion — and then says it misses the mark because the knowledge underneath it is not accurate. A person can love God intensely and still be wrong about who He is. That is why this conversation matters. > *"Certainly if after escaping from the defilements of the world by an accurate knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they get involved again with these very things and are overcome, their final state has become worse for them than the first."* — **2 Peter 2:20** > *"Therefore, no one will be declared righteous before him by works of law, for by law comes the accurate knowledge of sin."* — **Romans 3:20** > *"that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the accurate knowledge of him."* — **Ephesians 1:17** Read that one again. **The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.** The Father of glory. This is Paul, writing as an inspired apostle, after Jesus' resurrection and ascension to heaven, still calling the Father the *God of* Jesus Christ. Jesus has a God. That simple fact is enormous, and we will return to it. > *"always learning and yet never able to come to an accurate knowledge of truth."* — **2 Timothy 3:7** > *"This is so that their hearts may be comforted and that they may be harmoniously joined together in love and may have all the riches that result from the full assurance of their understanding, in order to gain an accurate knowledge of the sacred secret of God, namely, Christ."* — **Colossians 2:2** > *"Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's chosen ones and the accurate knowledge of the truth that is according to godly devotion."* — **Titus 1:1** > *"for his divine power has granted us all the things that contribute to life and godly devotion through the accurate knowledge of the One who called us by his own glory and virtue."* — **2 Peter 1:3** > *"May undeserved kindness and peace be increased to you by an accurate knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."* — **2 Peter 1:2** Peter's blessing is precise and beautiful: undeserved kindness and peace flow *by* accurate knowledge of **God** *and* of **Jesus our Lord** — two distinct persons named side by side, each to be known accurately. When we honor that distinction, peace flows. When we collapse it, confusion follows. --- ## 2. Who the Father Truly Is: Jehovah Alone Is the Most High The Hebrew Scriptures leave no room for confusion about the Father's identity. He is Jehovah, the self-existent One whose name was revealed to Moses at the burning bush. And throughout the inspired record, Jehovah speaks about Himself with a jealous clarity that does not share His supreme position with anyone. > *"Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah."* — **Deuteronomy 6:4** The *Shema*. Israel recited it. Jesus quoted it as the first and greatest commandment (Mark 12:29). One Jehovah. Not three-in-one. Not a family of equals. **One.** > *"I am Jehovah, and there is no one else. There is no God except me."* — **Isaiah 45:5** > *"That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth."* — **Psalm 83:18** Jehovah alone. The Most High. There is an unmistakable hierarchy built into that very title. You cannot be *most* high if there is another equally high. **The word itself excludes an equal.** > *"I am Jehovah. That is my name; I give my glory to no one else, Nor my praise to graven images."* — **Isaiah 42:8** Keep this verse in mind. It will matter deeply when we discuss honoring the Son. Jehovah does not share His supreme glory. He does share other things — authority, name, life, a throne — but not the ultimate glory that belongs to Him as the Most High. --- ## 3. Who the Son Truly Is — And Was Before He Came to Earth Here the picture becomes extraordinary. The Son of God did not begin his existence in Bethlehem. Scripture unfolds a stunning pre-human identity for him — one life across three portraits: **the Firstborn**, **the Word**, and **the Archangel**. These are not three separate beings. They are three lenses on the same Son. ### A. The Firstborn of All Creation > *"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."* — **Colossians 1:15** Paul chooses his words with care. **Firstborn** (Greek: *prōtótokos*) is not a title of abstract honor here — Paul explains himself in the very next verse: "by means of him all other things were created." The Son is first. Then by means of him, Jehovah created everything else. He is part of creation — the first part — and the agent through whom the rest came into being. > *"the beginning of the creation by God."* — **Revelation 3:14** Jesus himself, through John, gives us this title. **The beginning of the creation by God.** Not the beginner of creation. The *beginning* of it. The first created work of Jehovah's hands. > *"Jehovah produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago. From ancient times I was installed, from the start, from times earlier than the earth."* — **Proverbs 8:22, 23** In Proverbs 8, wisdom is personified — and early Christians, the Watchtower Society, and the *Insight* publications have long recognized this as a prophetic portrait of the pre-human Son. "Produced." "Installed." "The beginning." These are words of origin. Jehovah has no beginning. The Son does. > *"Then I came to be beside him as a master worker. I was the one he was especially fond of day by day; I rejoiced before him all the time."* — **Proverbs 8:30** Picture this: a Father and His firstborn Son, side by side across unmeasured ages of time, crafting universes together. The Son as master worker. The Father as the source. Their bond the deepest bond in all existence. This is the relationship Jesus later reflected on earth when he said, "The Father loves the Son" (John 5:20). ### B. The Word — The One Who Was With God > *"In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god."* — **John 1:1** The New World Translation renders John 1:1 accurately because the Greek grammar demands it. **The Word was *with* God** — which in Greek (*prós ton theón*, face-to-face with **the God**) proves two persons. You cannot be *with* someone and *be* that same someone. And the second clause — *theós ēn ho lógos* — lacks the definite article before *theós*. Grammatically and contextually, this describes the quality or nature of the Word, not identity with the Father. Translators who render this "the Word was God" must then explain away the very distinction John just drew. The NWT preserves the distinction John wrote. > *"This one was in the beginning with God."* — **John 1:2** John repeats it. Deliberately. **With God.** Two. Together. Distinct. > *"No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god who is at the Father's side is the one who has explained Him."* — **John 1:18** "Only-begotten" (*monogenḗs*) is another word of origin. "Begotten" means brought forth. A begotten son has a beginning from the one who begot him. The Son was brought forth by Jehovah, uniquely — no one else in all existence was created directly by the Father. Everything else was made *through* the Son. The Son alone was made *by* the Father directly. That is the meaning of only-begotten. And notice: "No man has seen God at any time." Yet Moses saw Jehovah's glory. Abraham ate with one called "Jehovah." Jacob wrestled with one and said, "I have seen God face-to-face." How do we reconcile this? Because the one they saw was not the Most High Himself — it was His Son, acting as His representative. Which brings us to the third portrait. ### C. Michael the Archangel — Chief Messenger of Jehovah This is the portrait most challenged by Trinitarian readers, but the scriptural evidence is remarkably consistent. Let the verses speak. > *"But the prince of the royal realm of Persia stood in opposition to me for 21 days, and look! Michael, one of the foremost princes, came to help me."* — **Daniel 10:13** Michael is called "one of the foremost princes." The Hebrew is *sar* — a chief, a commander. A mighty spirit being who leads heavenly forces against demonic resistance. > *"During that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who is standing in behalf of your people."* — **Daniel 12:1** "The great prince." The one who *stands in behalf of* Jehovah's people. A defender. A champion. **This is the very role Jesus fulfills throughout the New Testament** — advocate, intercessor, champion of the faithful. > *"for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel's voice and with God's trumpet, and those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first."* — **1 Thessalonians 4:16** The Lord Jesus descends **with an archangel's voice**. The Greek is precise: not "with *an* archangel's voice" as if he were accompanied by one, but **he himself descends with the commanding voice of an archangel**. And how many archangels does Scripture name? One. Michael. In Jude, Michael is called **the** archangel — *ho archángelos*, with the definite article. > *"But when Michael the archangel had a difference with the Devil and was disputing about Moses' body, he did not dare to bring a judgment against him in abusive terms, but said: 'May Jehovah rebuke you.'"* — **Jude 9** "**The** archangel." Only one. And what does Michael do when disputing with Satan? **He defers to Jehovah.** "May Jehovah rebuke you." He does not claim to be Jehovah. He does not rebuke in his own name. He points away from himself to the Father. That is exactly the pattern of Jesus on earth — "I can do nothing on my own initiative" (John 5:30); "The Father is greater than I am" (John 14:28). > *"And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled."* — **Revelation 12:7** Michael leads angelic forces to cast Satan out of heaven. And when we look at Revelation as a whole, who is the warrior-king riding out of heaven at the head of angelic armies to defeat God's enemies? > *"And the armies in heaven were following him on white horses... He has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of kings and Lord of lords."* — **Revelation 19:14, 16** The same heavenly warrior leading the same heavenly armies. Michael in Daniel and Revelation 12; the glorified Christ in Revelation 19. One person. One role. One life story. Before his human life, the Son of God served as Michael — chief messenger, great prince, archangel. Michael was not a *different being* from the Logos; Michael was the **heavenly name and role** of the Son that later came to earth as Jesus. --- ## 4. One Son, Three Portraits — The Unified Picture Put the portraits together and the Son's identity becomes whole: - **As Firstborn** — he is the beginning of Jehovah's creation, the first and only one made directly by the Father, the one through whom all other things came to be. This is his *origin*. - **As the Word** — he is the Father's Spokesman, His image, His perfect representative. This is his *function* in relation to creation and revelation. - **As Michael the Archangel** — he is chief of Jehovah's heavenly armies, the great prince who stands up for God's people. This is his *office* as leader of the angels. One Son. One life that stretches from before creation, through every age of the Hebrew Scriptures as the angel of Jehovah and as Michael, into a human birth in Bethlehem, through death on a stake, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement as King. **Never once identical to the Father. Always subordinate to Him. Always pointing to Him. Always loved by Him.** --- ## 5. The Son Himself Tells Us Who He Is If we want to know who Jesus is, the most honest place to look is at what Jesus said about himself. He was not shy on this subject. He spoke with complete clarity. > *"The Father is greater than I am."* — **John 14:28** > *"I can do nothing on my own initiative... I seek, not my own will, but the will of him who sent me."* — **John 5:30** > *"Concerning that day or the hour nobody knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father."* — **Mark 13:32** Stop at that one. If Jesus were co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, he would know what the Father knows. He explicitly says he does not. The Son has a knowledge ceiling that the Father does not have. That alone settles the question of co-equality. > *"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"* — **Matthew 27:46** > *"I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God."* — **John 20:17** Even after the resurrection — after his glorification — Jesus says "**my God**." The Son has a God. And that God is the Father. > *"But when all things will have been made subject to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, so that God may be all things to everyone."* — **1 Corinthians 15:28** Even at the end of the thousand-year reign, after every enemy is under his feet, **the Son subjects himself** — freely and joyfully — to the Father. Forever. There will never be a moment in eternity when the Son stops being subject to the Father. That is not a temporary arrangement. That is the permanent nature of their relationship. --- ## 6. Why the Son Matters So Much — A Family Portrait Here is where something tender comes into view. Imagine a Father and a Son who have worked together since before time began. The Son is the Father's pride, His delight, His master worker. When the Father conceived the plan to create human beings in His image — sons and daughters on earth — the Son was there, at His Father's side, rejoicing. Then human beings rebelled. Sin entered. Death spread. The Father's earthly family was broken. And what did Jehovah do? **He asked His beloved Son** — the one through whom He had made everything — to give up his heavenly glory, to empty himself, to be born as a human, to live a perfect life under unimaginable pressure, and finally to die a slow, brutal death to ransom a broken family he did not create the mess of. > *"For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."* — **John 3:16** "He **gave**" — the Father gave. The gift was the Son. And the Son? He did not have to say yes. He had spent ages at his Father's side. And when his Father asked, he said yes anyway. > *"although he was existing in God's form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God. No, but he emptied himself and took a slave's form and became human."* — **Philippians 2:6, 7** Look at that carefully. He **gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God**. The thought of grasping at equality with Jehovah never entered his mind. He was not equal — and he did not try to be. Instead he went the opposite direction. He emptied himself. He descended. He served. This is what makes the Son so precious. Not that he is the Father. **Precisely that he is not.** That a created being of unimaginable glory — the first of Jehovah's works — loved his Father and loved us enough to lay his heavenly life down for a family he had helped create. There is no story like this anywhere. There could not be. It is the greatest love the universe has ever seen, and it flows from a Father and a Son who are two persons, not one. When Trinitarian theology collapses the Father and the Son into one being, it *reduces* this story. If the Son is just the Father playing a different role, there is no real sacrifice — just God sending Himself on a mission He always planned to survive. But Scripture does not describe a solo act. It describes a **Father who gave** and a **Son who was given**. Two persons. One plan. Infinite love. --- ## 7. Worship the Father, Honor the Son — The Scriptural Pattern This is where many sincere believers become confused, and we need to walk slowly and gently. Scripture gives us a precise pattern: **we worship the Father, and we honor the Son**. Both are commanded. Neither is optional. But they are not the same word, not the same act, and not aimed at the same person. ### What Jesus himself said > *"Jesus said to her: 'Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father... The hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for indeed, the Father is looking for ones like these to worship him.'"* — **John 4:21, 23** Four times in three verses: **worship the Father**. Jesus did not say, "Worship the Father and me." He said the Father is the one the true worshippers worship. And Jesus is the one teaching us to do it. > *"Then Jesus said to him: 'Go away, Satan! For it is written: "It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service."'"* — **Matthew 4:10** When tempted, Jesus defined worship for us: "**Jehovah your God**... **him alone**." Not "even me." Not "the Trinity." Jehovah alone. This is the Son teaching us whom to worship. We would be unwise to worship him in a way he himself said belongs only to his Father. ### What we owe the Son > *"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."* — **John 5:23** Here is the verse many use to argue for worshipping Jesus. Read it carefully. The word is **honor** — in Greek, *timáō*. It is not the word for worship (*latreúō* / *proskynéō* in its religious sense). *Timáō* is the same word used in "Honor your father and mother" (Matthew 15:4). We honor our parents deeply. We do not worship them. The parallel is precise. And *how* are we to honor the Son? "**Just as**" we honor the Father. The Greek *kathṓs* here means "in the manner that" — the honor matches in style and sincerity, not necessarily in degree. We honor the Son with the same kind of wholehearted reverence we give his Father, because he is the Father's perfect Son, sent by the Father, representing the Father. To dishonor him is to dishonor the One who sent him. ### Obeisance is not worship When the NWT translates *proskynéō* toward Jesus as "do obeisance," critics call this dishonest. It is not. *Proskynéō* simply means to bow down, kneel, or prostrate oneself. In ancient context it was done to kings, to prophets, to angels, and to God. Context determines whether it is civil homage or religious worship. - Abraham bowed to the sons of Heth (Genesis 23:7) — *proskynéō* in the LXX. Not worship. - David bowed to King Saul (1 Samuel 24:8) — *proskynéō*. Not worship. - The disciples bowed to the risen Jesus (Matthew 28:17) — *proskynéō*. The same honor due a king. But the deepest worship — *latreúō* — is never in Scripture directed to Jesus. Not once. It is always reserved for the Father. Jesus himself said so in Matthew 4:10. ### The pattern of Revelation Even in heaven, the pattern holds. In Revelation 4, the creatures worship **the One seated on the throne**. In Revelation 5, they praise **the Lamb** — and then praise goes **to the One on the throne *and* to the Lamb**, two distinct recipients side by side, never collapsed into one. Then in Revelation 7:10, salvation is ascribed "to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb." Two. Distinct. Honored together. Never identified as the same being. ### Giving thanks for what they have done This is what our hearts are meant to do every day of our lives: **worship Jehovah the Father** — the Source of everything, the only true God, the Most High — and in that very worship, **give Him thanks for His Son**. For the Son He created before all ages. For the Son He sent. For the Son who obeyed. For the Son who died. For the Son He raised. For the Son He exalted and made King. And we **honor that Son** with everything we are — by listening to him, obeying him, imitating him, praying in his name, loving him as our King, our High Priest, our Master, our elder Brother. > *"so that in the name of Jesus every knee should bend — of those in heaven and those on earth and those under the ground — and every tongue should openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."* — **Philippians 2:10, 11** Every knee bends at the name of Jesus. **To the glory of God the Father.** That is the orientation of everything. The Son's exaltation, his lordship, his name — all of it flows toward the glory of the Father. The Son himself wants it that way. And so must we, if we truly know him. --- ## 8. Coming to the Father If you have read this far, you are not reading out of idle curiosity. You are reading because something in your heart is reaching for a clearer picture of God. That longing itself is a gift from Jehovah — He is the One drawing you (John 6:44). > *"No one comes to the Father except through me."* — **John 14:6** There it is, in one sentence. The Son is the way. The Father is the destination. The Son does not replace the Father, does not overshadow the Father, does not compete with the Father. He leads you **to** the Father. That is his greatest joy. It is what he came for. Accurate knowledge is not a trophy. It is a door. Walk through it. Call on Jehovah by His name. Accept the ransom the Son provided. Honor the Son by obeying him. Worship the Father with spirit and truth. Give thanks for what they have done — the Father who gave, the Son who was given, and the holy spirit by which both work in us and in the world. May undeserved kindness and peace be increased to you *by an accurate knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord* (2 Peter 1:2). May everything you read here point you ever higher — to the Most High, Jehovah, whose name alone is to be sanctified, and to His beloved Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things. **To Jehovah alone be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.** --- ## For Further Study Search these terms on [wol.jw.org](https://wol.jw.org): *accurate knowledge*, *Michael*, *Word*, *firstborn*, *worship*. Key *Insight on the Scriptures* entries: "Knowledge," "Michael," "Jesus Christ," "Worship." Visit [jw.org](https://www.jw.org) to request a free Bible study in your language.