Mansion

“In my Father’s house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2).

A mansion! Now you’re talking! Someday yonder—just over the hilltop—I’m going to have a mansion! I want a gold one, that’s silver lined.

The Greek word for ‘”mansion” in this verse is mone (mo NAY). It is used only one other time in the New Testament, in a place which may surprise you. It is found in this same 14th chapter of John, in verse 23, where the Father and Son promise to come and make their “abode” (KJV) in us.

I think it’s fascinating that we call our mone a “mansion,” but we call God’s mone an “abode.” What a contrast!

Could it be that we expect God to provide us a much better guest room in heaven than we have been providing him in our hearts?

Let’s dig deeper. The word Jesus used in both verses has very little to do with splendor and magnificence. (Revelation 21 tells us much about the riches of our home in heaven, but that is not the point here in John 1.) The word used by Jesus means an abiding place, a refuge, a rest. The primary focus is on the permanence of that dwelling, not its elegance.

The greatest blessing of the heavenly home, after all, is that we will get to stay there forever.

And maybe, after all, that is what God wants most of all in his “mansion” in our hearts: the right to consider himself at home—permanently!