1 John 4:15

Confessing that Jesus is God’s Son is not the only condition for abiding in God. It is one evidence that one is abiding. One not abiding may or may not make this confession. Confession is the last step, the step of bearing witness (cf. 1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:23; 1 John 4:3; Romans 10:9-10).

"The notion of God ’abiding’ in someone has rich associations with John’s Gospel, where meno occurs more than three dozen times. The word can mean simply to dwell somewhere; one’s domicile is where one ’abides’ (John 1:38-39 a; John 2:12; John 4:40 [2x]; John 7:9; John 8:35 [2x]; John 10:40; John 11:6; John 11:54). But there is a fuller sense. God’s Spirit descended and ’remained’ on Jesus, according to John the Baptist (John 1:32-33). The Spirit was Jesus’s constant companion. To ’remain’ or ’abide’ in Jesus’s teaching is to be his true disciple (John 8:31). A disciple will be informed and steered by all that Jesus commanded and taught. God the Father ’remained’ or ’abode’ with Jesus during his earthly days (John 14:10). The Father was the source of the very words he spoke, and Jesus ’remained’ continually in the Father’s love (John 15:10 b. ’Abiding’ describes a reality involving father, Son, and Spirit." [Note: Yarbrough, p. 252.]