There are at least five women with the name Mary who are mentioned in the New Testament. These include Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2), the sister of Lazarus (John 11:1), the mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12), a sister in Rome who bestowed much labor on Paul (Romans 16:6), and of course, "the mother of Jesus" (Acts 1:14). It is about the wife of Joseph, who had the wonderful privilege of giving birth to Jesus, that we write in this article. Is it right to worship her?

Mary, Joseph’s wife, is mentioned by name in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts (1:14 only). In the book of John she is referred to simply as "the mother of Jesus" (John 2:1,3; 19:25,26). How interesting that there is no mention of Mary in the book of Acts in connection with the message that the apostles and early disciples preached. It is also worthy of note that she is nowhere mentioned in any of the last 22 books of the New Testament (Romans through Revelation).

Without doubt, Mary played a unique role in God’s plan to save man through His Son Jesus. To her and her alone the angel Gabriel said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Indeed, Mary’s role was special. However, for one to have a special role in God’s scheme of redemption does not prove that such a person ought to be worshipped. Moses’ role as mediator between Israel and Jehovah at Mt. Sinai was surely a unique one (Galatians 3:19; Acts 7:38), but that does not mean that he was worthy of being worshipped.

Is it true that Mary was blessed and found special favor in God’s sight? Absolutely. The angel Gabriel told her, "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women … thou hast found favour with God" (Luke 1:28,30). Later, Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and cousin of Mary, spoke these words to her when she (Elisabeth) was filled with the Holy Spirit: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:42). Mary herself proclaimed, "… behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48). Mary truly was a chosen vessel of God who was greatly blessed by Him. However, for a person to be chosen or blessed by the Lord, or to receive favor in His sight, does not mean that such a one ought to be worshipped. David found favor in the sight of Jehovah (Acts 7:45,46), but David is not the proper object of our worship. Every member of the body of Christ has been chosen by God in Christ, and we are blessed by our heavenly Father with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3,4). But such election and blessings from God do not make us worthy of worship. The same is true of the favor and blessings that He bestowed upon Jesus’ mother, Mary: they simply do not make her into the proper recipient of our worship.

With all the above-stated facts in mind, let us turn directly to the question at hand: Should we worship Mary? There is no denying that millions of people throughout the world do just that. They are convinced that such worship is proper and, in fact, necessary. This includes those in both the Catholic and various Orthodox denominations. We must not forget that an action is not authorized or justified in God’s sight simply because a great number of people are involved in it. Millions of Buddhists bow to Gautama the Buddha, but he is certainly not the true God of heaven (Acts 17:24), so to worship Buddha is not acceptable in our Lord’s sight. In the same way, to appeal to the fact that many worship Mary as justification for such action is not appropriate, for with the Lord God an action’s acceptability is not based on the number of people who engage in it (Matthew 7:13,14).

What about it, is worshipping Mary something that we ought to do, or not? Without hesitation our answer is: it would not be in harmony with the teachings of the Bible to worship Mary, the mother of Jesus. Thus, it would be wrong to do so. Upon what do we base our conclusions?

1) There is no authority in the New Testament for worshipping Mary (or any other human). There is no command to worship her, no direct statement about worshipping her, no approved example of any disciple of Jesus worshipping her, and no implication that such action is authorized and approved by God. Without such authority, to worship Mary would be to act outside the doctrine of Christ and thus be without God’s approval (2 John 9). Worshipping Mary is no part of that which the Lord Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20). Thus, to worship her is to act according to the teachings of men, which causes such worship to be in vain: "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:7).

2) Acceptable worship takes place only when the true God of heaven is worshipped. God seeks "true worshippers" to worship Him (John 4:23). Jesus plainly told the devil, "… it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10). In this regard two New Testament examples are crystal clear. First, when Cornelius fell at the feet of Peter to worship him, Peter refused to allow such action, saying to Cornelius, "Stand up, I myself also am a man" (Acts 10:25,26). Second, when the apostle John prepared to worship an angel, the angel strictly forbid him with these words: "See thou do it not; for I am thy fellowservant … worship God" (Revelation 22:8,9; see also 19:10).

Time and again in the Scriptures we see the same message: worship God, and worship only Him. Therefore, the question that sooner or later must be addressed is a simple one: is Mary God, or not? One Bible passage that shows an unmistakable answer to this question is Luke 1:46,47. There it is recorded that Mary spoke these words to Elisabeth: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Note how Mary describes her relationship with God: "God my Saviour" (italics mine, RDC). By confessing that God was her Saviour, Mary was indirectly acknowledging that she is not God. Why do we make such a statement? Consider this. What kind of person is in need of God to be his/her Saviour? A sinner. Only a sinner stands in need of a Saviour. Christ came to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). So, if Mary admitted that God was her Saviour, then in reality she was saying that she was a sinner, for only one who has sinned is in need of the Saviour. When Jesus walked the earth as a man, did He confess the Father as His Saviour? No, because Christ had no sins (1 Peter 2:22). Mary, on the other hand, acknowledged God as her Saviour. Only God is without sin. Mary needed a Saviour, and thus was not without sin. Therefore, she was not God. Because she was not God, she is not worthy of our worship.

The bottom line is this: Mary worship is not from the Bible, but is the tradition of men. She is not God, and thus no man, woman or child should worship her. To do so is to transgress the will of God. We know that it is usually an extremely difficult task to convince a person who already worships Mary that such action is against God’s will. But, we must give it our best shot, speaking with kindness as the oracles of God (1 Peter 4:11).

-- Roger D. Campbell