worthy: weighing as much as something else, and so deserving it, fitting it, or matching it in value
The picture underneath this word is a balance scale. Something is worthy when it weighs as much as what is set against it, so the two sides match. From that one image the word reaches in three directions, and English needs a different word for each.
First, a person or thing can be worthy of a good return: deserving the honor, the reward, the welcome, or the place that fits it. A worker earns his pay, a faithful saying earns full acceptance, and in the visions of Revelation the Lamb alone is worthy to open the scroll. Second, by the same logic a person can be worthy of a bad return: deserving the punishment that matches the deed, which is why the courts in Acts keep asking whether the accused has done anything worthy of death. Third, the word can simply say that one thing corresponds to another, that it is in keeping with it or fits it, as fruit fits genuine repentance, or as present sufferings do not even come close to balancing the glory ahead.
These are facets of one word, not separate words, because the same idea of matching weight runs through all of them. The reader can tell which facet is meant from what is being weighed: a reward, a penalty, or a thing being measured against another. The choice of English word changes, but the underlying claim is always that the two sides of the scale answer to each other.