This is a letter that I just wrote to a Catholic friar. In it, I imply that I am far more religous than is true ( I have not stepped foot in a church for years) but the sentiment of the question is still true.
A few hours ago I came across the sentence “I worship Jesus” in an article. Although I have heard, read and professed such an asseveration countless time myself, for some reason it troubled me as never before.
I have never quite thought of my praise and faith in God and Christ as “worship”. As never before the idea of worshiping them, or anything, felt abhorrent. It seemed to imply the sort of status formally given to royalty, wherein a such were fundamentally superior to the commoners, that because of their caste they are above any law. For example, that it would be no crime for a royal to casually kill or otherwise violate the rights of their subjects because the will of the king is law.
The best I can explain my feelings of worshiping the Lord is somewhat like how one would acknowledge and praise a great man, such as an Issac Newton or Aristotle, yes they are better than I, yes they have earned a deference to their opinion, but they are not above the law. I study and follow the scriptures in the same way as I would a calculus textbook, because it is true and demonstrably correct. I worship God because I recognize that God is an entity of unerring logic and rationality. A thing is not true because God said it, 2+2 would not equal 5 if it was commanded so, God said such things because they are true. I do not see this as a limitation upon God, there is no other possibility than what is revealed. If someone says “if God in omnipotent then let’s see him make 2+2=5” they are speaking gibberish, as if they said “let’s see God wennkljrr a miufflangtl”it is a nonsensical request. I have always felt that we are somewhat equal to God. I do not deny the divinity of God or Christ, or mean to imply that we are such. I mean, for example, that God could not steal my car and not have it be a sin. Again, this is not a limitation on God, for such an act would be just as irrational as saying 2+2=5 and an entity of perfection is incapable of such things. I have thought that all evil is not so because of some capricious proclamation, but are so because they are as irrational as trying to “wennkljrr a miufflangtl”. I have seen this as one of the great proofs for the truth of Christianity, that unlike all other religions, we believe that the world is rational and perfect, not subject to whim, and that evil is only possible because we have the free will to be irrational.
When I read “worship Jesus” it felt as if one should blindly and unquestioningly follow the word of God. I do not mean to commit the fallacy of “poisoning the well”, I am truly wondering whether my conclusions are false. I am greatly troubled that my beliefs are heretical and, as such dilemmas are want to do, have been kept up most of the night trying to puzzle this out.
Am I overreacting? Do I have a mistaken impression of our relationship to God?
I don’t think you’ll get a universal or definite answer–just a subjective one, from each person’s point of view. Faith is a unique and individual thing.