Two years ago, I posted a video in which I tried to answer the question: “Is it wrong to pray to Jesus Christ?” Here’s how I concluded that video:
“Again, I’m not making a rule about whether it is right or wrong to pray to Jesus. That’s not my place. It’s a matter of conscience. If you want to talk with Jesus as one brother to another, that’s up to you. But when it comes to prayer, there does seem to be a difference that is hard to quantify but easy to see. Remember, it was Jesus who told us to pray to the Father in heaven and who taught us how do pray to our Father in heaven. He never told us to pray to himself.”
I have now realized that it is not a matter of conscience whether or not we can pray to Jesus. It is simply wrong to pray to Jesus Christ because the word for prayer in Greek, proseuchomai, is never used anywhere in Scripture to describe any communication with Jesus.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray only to God. He never instructed them to pray to him, nor did any of the Christian Bible writers. Throughout the New Testament, we see prayer being directed only to our heavenly Father.
Let’s start with what Jesus taught.
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. (Matthew 6:6 NKJV)
There’s no record of any change to that command. None of the Christian writers tell us that after Jesus went to heaven things changed and that now we are to go into our inner room and pray to our brother in heaven.
Jesus emphatically tells us, “this, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’” (Matthew 6:9, 10 NIV)
God’s holy name is still being slandered today, and his will is not being done on earth as it is in heaven at this time. So why would we stop praying to our Father about these things and instead pray to Jesus about them?
If prayer were truly to be made to Jesus as some contend, then why didn’t Jesus give us that instruction clearly? After all, this is a big thing. If there were to be “new light” on this issue, why didn’t the foremost proponent of Christianity, the Apostle Paul, clear matters up for us? Instead, he continued to follow Jesus’ lead and told us to pray to God.
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” (Romans 15:30 NIV)
“To Philemon, he wrote: “I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus.” (Philemon 1:4,5)
And to the holy ones in Philippi, he wrote: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6 BSB)
Despite that evidence, those who want to pray to Jesus refer to places in Scripture where believers are shown calling out to our Lord Jesus. For instance, we see in the stoning of Stephen where he calls out to Jesus before he dies.
“But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:55-60 NIV)
This is an example of a bad translation, because the word the NIV translates as “Stephen prayed” is not the Greek word for prayer, proseuchomai, but is a different word, epikaloumenon, (I’m sorry about the pronunciation) which means to “call out.”
Stephen wasn’t praying. He had a vision and naturally, and appropriately, called out to Jesus whom he saw. Calling out to our Lord, or anyone else for that matter, is not to engage in prayer. Prayers are a unique form of communication in that prayers are offered only to God. If I talk to you, I’m not praying to you. If I talk to God, I’m praying to God. This is a very important distinction.
To illustrate that further, consider this account:
“At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.
The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.” (Acts 10:1-4 NIV)
Cornelius was praying to God and then a vision occurred and an angel from God came and spoke to him and he replied. Was Cornelius praying to the angel? No. Prayers are for God alone. So, when someone is depicted in a vision talking with an angel, we don’t jump to the conclusion that he’s engaged in prayer with an angel, do we? So, why don’t these proponents of praying to Jesus not apply that same understanding when Jesus is the one appearing in the vision? Talking isn’t praying.
I’ve had many people write me to convince me that it is correct to pray to Jesus, but one common thread in all their reasoning is that their arguments are full of personal interpretation and emotion but lack any scriptures that clearly authorize us to pray to anyone other than our Father in heaven. We cannot justify disobeying God because it seems right to us, makes sense to us, or just makes us feel good, can we?
Consider this account as a case in point:
“As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:17, 18)
The man “knelt” before Jesus. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, that word (Strongs NT 1120 γονυπετέω) means “to fall on the knees, the act of one imploring aid, and of one expressing reverence and honor.”
Did Jesus accept that man’s well-intentioned display of honor? No, he rebuked him. So, if you honor Jesus your way and not the way he commands you to honor him, then you cannot expect him to praise you, but instead to rebuke you.
But still some reason, “But I love Jesus and so my prayers to him are an expression of that love and a profound appreciation.”
Be careful if you think that way. You are deceiving yourself, because that isn’t love. Jesus tells us what it really means to love him:
“If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments.” (John 14:15 Amplified Bible)
Jesus repeats this at John 15:10,
“When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (John 15:10 NLT)
If we truly love Jesus, we will most certainly want him to love us in return, but a condition for him to love us is that we obey his commandments just as he obeys his Father’s commandments. We don’t get to do things our way, and then claim that it’s okay because we were motivated by love. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. There is a one-to-one connection between love for God and Jesus and obedience to their commands.
I’m sure that at this point some of you are still having trouble understanding why it’s such a bad thing to pray to Jesus. You might reason this way: “Why is it okay to talk with my Father in heaven, but not with my Brother in heaven?”
Seems like sound reasoning, doesn’t it? Sure, God’s Word the Bible tells me to pray only to God and never tells me that it’s appropriate to pray to my Lord Jesus, but I’m a pretty smart guy. I can figure things out for myself. It just feels right to pray to Jesus. I don’t see what harm it does. I’m just going to go ahead and do that.
Careful now. Remember what Paul says about human wisdom.
“For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (1 Corinthians 1:19, 20 NIV)
But we don’t have to speculate about why the wisdom of the intelligent and wise is foolish in this case, because we have two thousand years of human history to go by.
I’m not even going to get into the whole issue of the Trinity. Of course, if Jesus is part of a Trinity, and thus is God Almighty, then why not pray to him? Praying to him is praying to God, right?
But what if you’re not a believer in the Trinity? What if you only accept the human logic that we can pray to Jesus because he’s our brother in heaven?
Well, here’s where that logic led. The Catholic church believes that Jesus’ brothers like the apostles and first century Christians have already been resurrected. They refer to these brothers of Christ as “Saints.” The top three Catholic Saints are, Saint Mary, Mother of Jesus; Saint Peter; and Saint Paul. Catholics pray to all of them. And why not? If it’s okay to pray to Jesus, our brother in heaven, it must be okay to pray to any of the resurrected brothers of Christ, right?
Of course, we know that the resurrection of the holy ones is still in our future, but again, the principle remains the same. There will be billions of people brought back to life in the resurrection of the unrighteous that Jesus referred to at John 5:29. Will they pray only to God or will they reason as some do today that it’s okay to pray to Jesus? If so, then if you and I attain our reward as we hope to and get to be part of the kingdom of God serving as brothers of Christ, then will the resurrected ones pray to you or to me? Is that something you’d find acceptable?
I don’t think so. There certainly is no Scriptural basis for such a ridiculous situation, yet that is the logical conclusion that millions of Catholics have come to with their prayers to the Saints based on what Paul called, the wisdom of the wise and intellectual ones.
Isn’t it just better to be obedient to our God? Our Lord told us to pray to God as our heavenly Father. Let’s just do as we’re told and enjoy the unique privilege of prayer afforded to those few called to be God’s children.
Now we come to what is potentially a sensitive point. Why do people want to pray to Jesus? Why do some fight so vehemently to justify this action. What is their motivation?
To begin to answer that, let’s start with this fact about Jesus Christ:
“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. And after he had been made perfect, he became responsible for everlasting salvation to all those obeying him.” (Hebrews 5:8, 9)
“Although he was a son.” In fact, Jesus was “the son”, the child of God. Yet, he still had to suffer. Why? Because he had to learn obedience. It’s easy to obey when there is no cost, no risk, no hardship. But it is of no value unless we can learn to obey when it is not easy. Only then was Jesus able to be perfected so that he could become responsible for the everlasting salvation for those—take note—for those obeying him.
Likewise, we are also sons and daughters, that is, children of God. Yet, we also must learn obedience through the things we suffer. In the first century, some Jewish Christians didn’t want to suffer. They didn’t want to endure the reproach of their fellow Jews, so they tried to get gentile Christians to accept circumcision. They were not willing to imitate Jesus, to follow his example.
Likewise, today, we must not be fearful of standing out from the crowd. Most Christians today believe that Jesus is God. Most Christians today pray to Jesus. But we are not most Christians. We do not follow men. Because of this we must endure trials. Peter knew this when he offered us these encouraging words:
“Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ [who] gave us a new birth to a living hope …to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance [that] is reserved in the heavens for you…Because of this you are greatly rejoicing, though…you have been distressed by various trials, in order that the tested quality of your faith…may be found a cause for praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:3-7)
The tested quality of our faith comes from imitating the chief perfector of our faith, Jesus Christ.
“For the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2 BSB)
We too can sit down with him in the kingdom of God if we do as Christ did. Repeatedly, throughout the book of John, we find reference after reference of Jesus’ stating that he does nothing of his own will, but only what his Father commands him to do. That is the example we must imitate.
Are we looking to be accepted by others, like the first century Christians who tried to get gentile Christians to accept circumcision? Standing for what is right means persecution. It means we won’t be accepted by the larger Christian community surrounding us. Obedience to God is hard, but it works out for us a tested quality that endures and leads to everlasting life.
Before closing, I wanted to say that those of you who’d like to consider all the verses used to try to justify praying to Jesus and how in each instance, they fall short of the mark, for you I will put a link in the description to an excellent article on a WordPress site called, “Proselyte of Yah”.
Thank you so much for listening and for continuing to support our work.