John 14:2 English Standard Version (ESV) In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

John 14:2 King James Version (KJV) 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.

John 14:2 My Version (MV) In my Father’s family there are many children: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

My version is in consideration of yesterday’s devotional. God loves and wants to be loved. What better expression is there of love than to be included in the family of God? We all want to be treated like a loved one. One of the problems of living in a large family is finding your place within the family dynamic.

Jesus declares that He will show you were you fit. Nothing solidifies security like being found useful, appreciated and loved for being yourself. You can be real and accepted.

My version brings my natural desire into focus. I don’t want a room and I don’t want a mansion. I want to love and be loved. My heart has been changed to want the same thing that God wants.

There are many things that could be said of why the different translations use houses and mansions and rooms. We can imagine why but does that fulfill our own personal desires. What it is in us that creates these emotional desires we call needs. God declared what our needs are in life. He declared He would meet those needs. What He was expressing in the promise of provision was love.

We are not an accident of birth. God chose to place us in His family.

Isaiah 53:4-6 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;

There is a portion of these passages that our flesh screams; “It’s not my fault!” The words are “pierced for our transgressions”. If we are unwilling to accept that it is our sins for which Christ died, then we are willfully ignoring the free gift offering of salvation. The truth is that we do not go to hell for our sins, we go to hell because we did not accept the offer of salvation by faith. We cannot accept this gift by intellect, it has to be received by faith.

Changing one’s mind does not change one’s heart.

God’s only desire since creating this world and all that is in it was to be loved. He created mankind to love and be loved. God has been showing us how to love and we have failed to love Him as perfectly as He loves us. We can see the first principle of love in His first commandment, fidelity.

Exodus 20:3 English Standard Version (ESV) “You shall have no other gods before^[a] me.”

Footnotes: a Or besides

Mankind has known no greater pain than rejection. It is personal and insulting to have the one we love being unfaithful. The greatest and least used title for Christ is Faithful. His fidelity to the Father and to us, His bride, is unmatched.

Exodus 20:3 was not the first thing God said. Love must first declare itself.

Exodus 20:2 English Standard Version (ESV) “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

God declared His love for His creation with only the hope of being loved in return.