Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.” (John 14:2) This refers to the office of a servant of God who dispenses his duties well.
In this scripture, the word “house” in the Greek is “oikia” (pronounced oy-kee’-ah) and means “household” and by extension “family” the word “mansions” is “mone” (pronounced ‘mon-ay’) and means “residence” (the act or the place).
Now follow me closely.
The meaning of the word “mansions” is “residence” but it can either be the place of residence or the act of residence. For all my 20 plus years as a Christian I’ve heard it taught as a place of residence, Christians are always referring to their “mansion in heaven” and the “keys to their mansion.” But does that really make sense?
In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If a mansion by definition is a very large house, how can there be many mansions in a house? If we are honest with ourselves we must confess that taken literally this scripture makes no sense at all. Does it?
Even if we expand the meaning of the word ‘house’ to mean ‘household’ or ‘family’ it’s still like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
There must be another interpretation for this scripture and I believe I have it…
