John 14:1-3
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Our Saviour here intends the encouragement and comfort of His disciples, by assuring them, that in the place whereto He was going before them, there was ample room to receive them and everything to accommodate them in the most delightful manner.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): A hope of future happiness affords strong consolation under present trials. The children of God, if destitute of this, would be “of all men most miserable;” but this renders them incomparably more happy, even under the most afflictive dispensations, than the greatest fullness of earthly things could make them.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): We have, secondly, in this passage, a very comfortable account of heaven, or the future abode of saints.
CHARLES SIMEON: We shall consider our Lord’s description of heaven. Our Lord thus describes it: “My Father’s house of many mansions.”
J. C. RYLE: Heaven is “a Father’s house.”
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): And His Father is our Father, to Whom He was now ascending; so that in the right of their elder brother, all true believers shall be welcome to that happiness, as to their home.
J. C. RYLE: This is one idea of heaven. It is, in a word, home: the home of Christ and Christians. This is a sweet and touching expression. Home, as we all know, is the place where we are generally loved for our own sakes, and not for our gifts or possessions; the place where we are loved to the end, never forgotten, and always welcome.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): There are many mansions, but they are all in our Father’s house.
CHARLES SIMEON: Here seems to be an allusion to the temple at Jerusalem: God dwelt there in a more especial manner; around it were chambers for the priests and Levites. Thus in heaven God dwells, and displays His glory; there also are mansions where His redeemed people “see Him as He is.”
JEREMY BURROUGHS (1599-1647): Heaven would not be heaven without the presence of God.
J. C. RYLE: Heaven is a place where Christ Himself shall be present. He will not be content to dwell without His people—“Where I am, there ye shall be also.” We need not think that we shall be alone and neglected. Our Saviour—our elder Brother—our Redeemer, Who loved us and gave Himself for us, shall be in the midst of us forever. What we shall see, and whom we shall see in heaven, we cannot fully conceive yet, while we are in the body. But one thing is certain: we shall see Christ. Let us note that one of the simplest, plainest ideas of heaven is here. It is being “ever with the Lord.”
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Christ is the centre of attraction in heaven.
J. C. RYLE: Heaven is a place of “many mansions.”
MATTHEW HENRY: There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory, and Christ exactly knows their number, nor will He be straitened for room by the coming of more company than He expects.
THOMAS COKE: The Greek word μοναι signifies “quiet and continued abodes,” and therefore seems happily expressed by our English word mansion, the etymology and import of which is just the same.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): “Mansions” means places of permanent abode. There is only one other occasion in this Gospel in which the word here translated “mansions” is employed, and it is this: “abode,” John 14:23.—“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
J. C. RYLE: Heaven is a place of lasting, permanent, and eternal dwellings. Here in the body we are in lodgings, tents, and tabernacles, and must submit to many changes. In heaven we shall be settled at last, and go out no more. “Here we have no continuing city,” Hebrews 13:14. Our house not made with hands shall never be taken down.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Noah’s ark was furnished with “rooms” or “nests,” Genesis 6:14. In every other passage in the Old Testament where that Hebrew word occurs, it is translated “nest.” We hesitate to press the spiritual signification here; yet, we have seen that the ark is such a striking and comprehensive type of our salvation in Christ we must believe that this detail has some meaning, whether we are able to discern it or no. The thought which is suggested to us is, that in Christ we have something more than a refuge, we have a resting place; we are like birds in their nests, the objects of Another’s loving care. Oh, is it that the “nests” in the ark look forward to the “many mansions” in the Father’s House? which our Lord has gone to prepare for us. It is rather curious that there is some uncertainty about the precise meaning of the Greek word here translated “mansions.” Weymouth renders it, “In My Father’s house are many resting places!”
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Mansions of love, peace, joy, and rest, which always remain.
J. C. RYLE: Chrysostom, Augustine, and several other ancient writers think the “many mansions” means the degrees of glory…That there are degrees of glory in heaven is undoubtedly true, but I do not think it is the truth of this text. The modern idea, that our Lord meant that heaven was a place for all sorts of creeds and religions, seems utterly unwarranted by the text. From the whole context He is evidently speaking for the special comfort of Christians. There will be room for all believers and room for all sorts, for little saints as well as great ones, for the weakest believer as well as for the strongest. The feeblest child of God need not fear there will be no place for him. None will be shut out but impenitent sinners and obstinate unbelievers.
JOHN MASON (1646-1694): In heaven there is the presence of all good and the absence of all evil.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Heaven is a garment of glory, that is only suited to him that is holy. God, who is truth itself, and cannot lie, hath said it, that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” Hebrews 12:14. Mark that word “no man.”—without holiness here, no heaven hereafter. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,” Revelation 21:27. God will at last shut the gates of glory against every person that is without heart purity.
J. C. RYLE: It does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise.
ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): If an unholy man were to get to heaven, he would feel like a hog in a flower garden.
AUGUSTINE (354-430): Heaven is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: Our mansion is in God. So ask yourselves, Have you a place in that heavenly home?
JOHN MASON: How can we expect to live with God in heaven if we love not to live with Him on earth?
