Throughout the Bible, God (Yahweh) alone is to be worshiped. The first of the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses was, “Thou shall have no other gods…” A god could be an idol, a person, an angel, or any other created being. Therefore, to worship anything or anyone other than God was the most abominable sin one could commit.
However, Jesus accepted worship on nine different occasions recorded in the New Testament. The apostle Paul also tells us that the Father is pleased by our worship of Jesus. Speaking of Jesus, he writes to the Philippians:
At the name of Jesus “every knee shall bow,” whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why, in the end, “every tongue shall confess” that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11, J. B. Phillips).
Did God change his mind about allowing someone other than himself to be worshiped? Why would God tell us in the Ten Commandments that we absolutely must not worship anyone other than himself, and then mandate that we worship Jesus Christ?
The author of Hebrews gives us the answer to the question of why we are to worship God’s Son, Jesus:
This Son, radiance of the glory of God, flawless expression of the nature of God, himself the upholding principle of all that is, effected in person the reconciliation between God and man and then took his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high—thus proving himself, by the more glorious name that he has won, far greater than all the angels of God. … But when he [the Father] speaks of the Son, he says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever …’ (Hebrews 1:3-4, 8, J. B. Phillips).
We are told here that Jesus is far superior to all God’s angels. The reason is that angels are creations of God–not God himself. On the other hand, God the Father called his Son: “GOD.” So, God never changed his mind about our worshiping anything or anyone other than God. That is because Jesus Christ is fully God.
For further reading we recommend the Y-Jesus article “Did Jesus Claim to be God?”