John: Chapter 14

Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

WE BELIEVE IN God. It follows logically that we believe also in the manifestation of God, the ideal man. This proposition once accepted, there dawns on the understanding the truth of an intimate relation existing between Father and Son. The Father, God, "Spirit," is within the Son as the animating principle. The full recognition by man of this indwelling Spirit, as it was in Jesus, makes man the central figure and ruling power in the manifest universe. "The kingdom of God is within you."

"Many mansions" means many abiding places. "Mansion" comes from the Latin manere, to remain. The meaning of Jesus was that He was making a permanent abiding place for those who believed in His teaching and accepted Him for what He really was--God manifest. The idea usually held out is that Jesus was preceding His disciples to heaven, where He would await and welcome them. But there is no such meaning in the text. The permanent abiding place to which Jesus invites His friends is "prepared" by Him: He makes the place Himself, in fact He is the place. "Where I am, there ye may be also:

4 And whither I go, ye know the way. 5 Thomas

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