You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
9 Then[kai] saith he[lego] unto me,[moi] See[horao] thou do it not:[me] for[gar] I am[eimi] thy[sou] fellowservant,[sundoulos]
and[kai] of thy[sou] brethren[adelphos] the
prophets,[prophetes] and[kai] of them which keep[tereo]
the sayings[logos] of this[toutou] book:[biblion] worship[proskuneo] God.[theos] KJV-Interlinear
9 And he
said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your
brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book; worship
God." NASB
The angel answered and corrected John.
What he meant by 'fellow' is simply that the angels are a created species just as we humans are. Sure they have abilities that we do not, but then not all humans are equal in every aspect. Some humans are smarter, some are more athletic, some are prettier, and so forth. Yet we all humans are of the same race. We are fellow human beings.
Likewise, the angels are fellow living beings, fellow creations of God.
The angels did not create us. The angels do not have omniscience. The angels do not have any powers of deity.
Therefore, just as we are fellows with humanity, just as we are fellows with the apostles, just as we are fellows with the prophets, just as we are fellows with all believers throughout history, just as we are fellows with the angels, then we do not worship as deity any of these fellow creatures, human or angel. We certainly don't pray to any of them.
We do not worship kings. We do not worship queens. We do not worship anyone who might be of royal bloodlines. We do not worship our past dead ancestors. We do not worship famous people of the past, or even of the present for that matter. We do not worship saints, or anyone who might be made or labeled a saint. The title of saint is just a human title or designation honoring some person. The honor may be legitimate or it might not be legitimate.
Jesus was born into humanity. He was born to a woman named Mary. We do not worship her or any of her ancestors back to David, or even back to Adam. We do not worship Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. We don't pray to them. They cannot hear us. They cannot do anything for us. They aren't deity.
All of these people are just like you. They were born humanity, they grew up as humans, they all had to believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved, lest they go to the Lake of Fire. They all had their successes in life, and they all had their failures, just like you.
The only differences between you and them, are the time in history, in which you and they live, and the plan that God had for them, verses the plan, which God has for your life.
Gods plan for your life is no better or worse than His plan for any of them. Even if you have not praised Jesus, even if you have not discovered a cure for some disease, even if all you do in life is change diapers for whining little brats, your life is important. Extremely important to God.
What you think is the real you, not what you do, not what you wear, not how you speak, not what you own.
Most likely, as far as this world is concerned, you will be a nobody. Yet, by advancing to spiritual maturity, through your quiet daily study of the Word of God, you will advance to superior heights as far as God is concerned.
The world will fight over its celebrityship, it will fight for its time on television, or radio, or in printed publications, in order to impress people and to exercise egos. But when the final bell of history rings, where will those folks be if they have not believed in Christ? Where will they be if they have ignored their spiritual lives?
They will be nowhere, and you will be enjoying phenomenal blessings due to your spiritual growth.
And you will be enjoying them (your blessings) forever, while those fools of history will be fighting over something in this world, that they will eventually lose within just a few years, and forfeiting their eternal blessings.
Now one more important thing. The term, 'fellow' means one of the same or similar type, companion, colleague .
In reality there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There is but one God in essence, three in personality. This same God applies to the angels, to humanity of our current day and to the prophets of the past.
In other words, there is but one God throughout history, one savior, one truth, and one salvation and future. All angels and all of humanity look to and have the same God .
The command? Worship God, not man, not angel, certainly not the things of this world, lest you throw away all or part of your entire eternal destiny.
Eternity is a very long time. It is billions, and trillions, and gazillions of years and more. Your life on this earth is but a few decades, maybe a hundred years at best. Which aspect of your life should you be focusing on?
