Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 John 2:29

"If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of him." — 1 John 2:29 (ASV)

Second Half. God is Love (1 John 2:5–29:12).

1. Righteousness the criterion of divine birth (1 John 2:29).
2. The divine birth the outcome of God’s love (1 John 3:1–3).
3. Its consequence on human conduct (1 John 2:4–10).
4. Brotherly love the necessary flower of the divine birth (1 John 2:10–18).
5. The glorious results of God’s love in sonship (1 John 2:19–24).
   • Assurance (1 John 2:19–21).
   • Grant of requests (1 John 2:22).
   • Presence of God (1 John 2:24).
   • Gift of the Spirit (1 John 2:24).
6. Necessity of trying the spirits (1 John 4:1–6).
7. The perfect love the surest test (1 John 2:7–21).
8. Faith the test of love (1 John 5:1–12).
   • The power of faith (1 John 2:1–5).
   • The witness of faith (1 John 2:6–10).
   • The content of faith (1 John 2:11–12).

Righteousness the criterion of the divine birth (1 John 2:29).—In passing on to think of God in His character of Love rather than of Light (this, with several interludes, is the leading thought up to 1 John 5:12), St. John is led, by the earnest exhortation of 1 John 2:28 (with which he closes the former subject), to pause for a moment on the idea of righteousness, which, just as it was the main object of the earlier dispensation, is also the final cause of Christianity.

This reflection suggests to his mind the new idea: “The righteous are born of God.” Wherever there was a spark of true righteousness, there was a birth from God.

He is righteous.—St. John looks at the Father and the Son as so essentially one that merely from his use of the pronoun, it would not be clear which Person he meant. Here, the phrase born of Him shows that he is thinking of the Father, or of the Deity in its oneness, rather than specifically of Christ.

You know.—Rather, you perceive. A divine germ, sent by the will of God, has come into the life. Just as the body and spirit grow in the womb, so the new man is gradually formed in the soul, not to be perfected until the future life.