Bible Strands
1 John 4:15
If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — John writes to a community confronting those who deny the full reality of Christ's identity. The verse brackets 4:14 (the Father sent the Son) and 4:16 (God is love), anchoring confession as the hinge between the two.
The words — ὁμολογῆσαι (homologēsē, "shall confess") carries the sense of public, verbal acknowledgment rather than private belief. The Greek supplied reads "Jesus is Christ" (Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς), a compact identification that the BSB renders "Son of God."
The thread — Romans 10:9 pairs confession with belief in the resurrection; Matthew 10:32 ties confession before men to Christ's acknowledgment before the Father; 1 John 5:5 restates the same confession as the mark of one who overcomes the world.
Why it lands — The verse makes a single verbal act the stated condition for mutual indwelling with God. It asks nothing beyond that confession and offers nothing less than God's presence as the result.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Cross-references
- Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
- Matthew 10:32 Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.
- 1 John 5:5 Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
- 1 John 3:24 Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.
- 1 John 4:2 By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
- Philippians 2:11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- 1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
- 1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him.
- Luke 12:8 I tell you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God.
- 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.