Passage

1 John 4.15

Book: 1 John · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"13. hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

"15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God."

"16. And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. 17. Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world." (1 John 4:13-17, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"13. By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world."

"15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God."

"16. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17. In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world." (1 John 4:13-17, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

"15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God."

"16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. ^{our love: Gr. love with us}" (1 John 4:13-17, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"13. in this we know that in Him we do remain, and He in us, because of His Spirit He hath given us. 14. And we, we have seen and do testify, that the Father hath sent the Son, Saviour of the world;"

"15. whoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God in him doth remain, and he in God;"

"16. and we, we have known and believed the love, that God hath in us; God is love, and he who is remaining in the love, in God he doth remain, and God in him. 17. In this made perfect hath been the love with us, that boldness we may have in the day of the judgment, because even as He is, we, we also are in this world;" (1 John 4:13-17, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: John the Elder (traditionally the apostle John)
Audience: the Johannine churches of Asia Minor (likely Ephesus and surrounding) facing a proto-Gnostic / Docetic-Christological secession (cf. 2:18-19, "they went out from us")
Location: Ephesus (traditionally)
Time period: composed c. AD 85-95
Narrative context: the 1 John passage on mutual indwelling (4:13-16), establishing the test of whether one abides in God. The previous unit (4:1-6) gave the Christological test of the spirits (every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God); the present unit (4:13-16) repeats the confessional test with the more-explicitly Christological content: Jesus is the Son of God.

Theological reading

1 John 4:15 is the Johannine epistolary use of the verbal homologeō (the cognate of [[G3669 - homologia|homologia]]) at its most-Christologically explicit. The conditional structure ("whosoever shall confess... God abideth in him") names confession as the test and mark of authentic abiding-in-God. The content of the confession is precise: Jesus is the Son of God (Iēsous estin ho huios tou Theou). Against the proto-Gnostic / Docetic secession (cf. 4:2-3, where the test is whether the spirit confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh), the Johannine epistolary test deploys the high-Christological identification: the historical Jesus is the Son of God in the full Johannine sense (cf. John 1:1-18; 20:31). The verse pairs with 1 John 2:23 (whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father) and 5:1 (whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God) to establish the Johannine pattern: Christology is the discriminator. Authentic-abiding-in-God is only available through confession of Jesus's identity-as-Son. The verse is foundational for the Christian-confessional-soteriology in which the content of confession is non-negotiable: a generic-religious confession is not the NT homologia; only the specifically-Christological confession of Jesus as Son of God yields the mutual-indwelling promise. The patristic-creedal tradition reads these Johannine confessional-tests as the apostolic-warrant for the precision of the early-church baptismal interrogations and the developed Christological creeds (Nicaea 325; Constantinople 381).

Key words

G3669 - homologia, homologia (Strong's G3669), the noun-cognate; this verse uses the verbal homologeō (G3670), hos ean homologēsēi ("whosoever shall confess"), but the confession-content here exemplifies what the NT homologia names.
G3670 - homologeo, homologeō (Strong's G3670), the verbal counterpart, directly deployed in this verse.

Quoted in

G3669 - homologia

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.