What Does John 14:23 Mean?
Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, that one will guard my word, and my Father will love that one, and we will come to him and make a place to remain with him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Jesus answered and said unto him, 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.THE KEY
The keeping of Jesus’ words flowers into a shared home where the Father and Son remain with the one who loves him.
THE MEANING
Love for Jesus takes form in treasuring and guarding his words. The Father’s love meets that keeping, and Father and Son come to make their staying place with the person. Their presence is pictured as home, not a passing arrival.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God only comes near for a brief visit; here the promise is that the Father and Son make their home with the one who loves Jesus.
THE ROOT
μονή
monē
GROWS FROM
μένω
menō
To remain, stay, or abide.
“place to remain” in this verse is monē. The noun monē comes from the verb menō, “to remain,” so the promise carries the sense of staying, not just arriving. The same noun appears in John 14:2, where the KJV renders its plural as “mansions”: the Father’s dwelling and God’s home with a person belong to one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
menō: Remain, stay, abide.
μένω
This verb gives monē its sense: an abode is where someone remains.
paramenō: Remain beside, continue.
παραμένω
This compound carries the same staying-root with a sense of remaining alongside, echoing the promise that God makes an abode “with him.”
epimenō: Continue, persist, remain.
ἐπιμένω
This compound shows the root’s sense of duration: the dwelling is a continuing presence.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence is expressed as taking up residence with people, turning relationship into shared dwelling.
And I will set my dwelling among you, and my living soul shall not recoil from you.And what setting down together has the temple of God with images? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, "I will dwell in them, and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people."And I hear a great voice from the throne, saying, Look, the tent of God is with humankind, and he will pitch his tent among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.THE THREAD
In my Father's house are many places to remain. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to make ready a place for you.“Mansions” here and “abode” in John 14:23 translate the same Greek noun, μονή (monē), a dwelling-place from the word-family of “remain.” The prepared place in the Father’s house and the home made with the person who loves Jesus meet in that shared word.
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