2:29 The doctrinal knowledge of John’s if statement sets up the ethical response implied by does what is right, but the response is a function of spiritual rebirth (born of him) and not human effort.[1]
2:29 For the first time, 1 John speaks of Christians as those “born” (gennaōg, Gk.) of God (cf. 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18). This imagery shows that the believer’s spiritual life results from the redemptive work of God. As a result, believers can legitimately be called God’s “children” (3:1).[2]
2:29 practices righteousness Those who do wrong by others reveal themselves to not be in right relationship with God. A person’s actions should be the first measure of whether they are in relationship with God.
fathered by him Believers in Jesus are adopted into God’s family (compare note on Eph 1:5).[3]
2:29 To know that he is righteous is to have placed one’s faith in Christ, not in one’s own moral uprightness.[4]
2:29 everyone … who practices righteousness is born of Him. This is the second feature of the believer’s hope in 2:28–3:3. The hope of Christ’s return not only sustains faith (v. 28), but makes righteousness a habit. The term for “born” is the same verb used in Jn 3:7 where Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be “born” again. Those truly born again as God’s children have their heavenly Father’s righteous nature (1Pe 1:3, 13–16). As a result, they will display characteristics of God’s righteousness. John looks from effect (righteous behavior) to cause (being truly born again) to affirm that righteous living is the proof of being born again (Jas 2:20, 26; 2Pe 3:11).[5]
2:29 Since God is righteous, those who practice righteousness will be recognized as being born of God. This verse does not say that everyone who is born of God practices righteousness. Believers can walk in darkness and sin (1:6, 8; 2:1). The point here is that when a child exhibits the nature of his or her father, he or she is perceived as the child of the father.[6]
2:29. Possibly the Revisionists maintained that God’s nature includes both light and darkness (cf. 1:5). On this understanding God by His very nature had experience with both good and evil. An obvious deduction from this is that His children could do the same. In contrast, since God is righteous, [then] everyone who practices (lit., does) righteousness is born of Him. This is the first reference in the epistle to the new birth. The born-again person can be recognized as such if he manifests Christian righteousness. The “commandments” of Christ (cf. the pl. in 3:22) can be summarized under a single commandment: “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment” (3:23). True righteousness is impossible apart from faith in Christ and love for fellow Christians.
John is not talking about how one can decide if a person is regenerate. John is clearly concerned with the deduction one can make if a person knows that God is righteous. If that is known, it follows that one who reproduces His righteous nature is actually manifesting that nature and can rightly be perceived as born of Him.[7]
2:29 The fourth family trait is righteousness. We know in the physical realm that like begets like. So it is in the spiritual. Everyone who practices righteousness is born of God. Because God is righteous, it follows that all He does is righteous, and therefore everyone born of Him is righteous. This is John’s inescapable logic.[8]
2:29. This verse introduces for the first time in 1 John the explicit thought of new birth. Since the readers know that He (God the Father or God the Son) is righteous, they would also know that everyone who does what is right has been born of Him (the pronoun here probably refers to God the Father who regenerates). (The phrase “born of God” occurs in 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18 [twice].) The statement has nothing to do with the readers’ individual assurance of salvation. It is rather an assertion that when they see real righteousness (“what is right” translates tēn dikaiosynēn) exhibited, they can be sure that the person who exhibits it is a child of God. This righteousness, of course, for John can only mean the kind that Christ had enjoined. It has nothing to do with mere humanistic kindness and morality. The converse of John’s statement does not follow, namely, that everyone who is born of God does righteousness. John knew that Christians can walk in the darkness and are susceptible to sin (1:6, 8; 2:1). He was writing here of the way one can see the new birth in the actions of others.[9]
2:29 “if” This is a THIRD CLASS CONDITIONAL SENTENCE that means potential action. Here it refers to an assumed knowledge that believers share, but false teachers have missed.
© “you know” This is either a PRESENT ACTIVE INDICATIVE which states an ongoing knowledge or a PRESENT ACTIVE IMPERATIVE which speaks of a believer’s necessary knowledge.
© “He” Verse 28; 2:1; and 3:7 show that this refers to Jesus. However, the last PRONOUN “born of Him” seems to refer to God the Father because the phrase “born of God” is used so often (cf. 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; John 1:13).
© “righteousness … righteousness” This is an expected family characteristic![10]
29. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Note the two parts of this verse:
a. Condition
John is telling his readers that if they know in their hearts “that he is righteous,” they also will learn to know that righteous Christians are born of him. Is John reminding the believers that Jesus is “the Righteous One” (2:1)?
Do the pronouns he and him refer to Jesus? Because verse 29 looks forward and not back, the pronouns must point to God the Father (see 3:1) and not to Christ (v. 28). Also, believers are called “children of God” (3:1–2) and never “children of Christ.” The phrase born of God appears four times in the epistle (3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4). Furthermore, the verb to be born implies the existence of a father and a son. Indirectly the verb points to (God the Father. The context, therefore, unmistakably suggests that the pronouns he and him signify God the Father and not Jesus the Son.
b. Conclusion
In a pithy comment that is straight to the point, Bengel remarks that “the righteous produces the righteous.” God who is righteous brings forth sons and daughters who reflect his righteousness in their daily lives. To be righteous is the equivalent of being holy. It implies doing the will of God, obeying his commands, and loving him and one’s neighbor. In short, “righteous” is a term that stands for being free from sin.
Therefore, the sentence “everyone who does what is right is born of God” does not describe those who do an occasional good deed. Rather, the sentence reveals the lifestyle of the person who is born of God. God’s children try to do that which is good and pleasing in his sight. From our point of view, the sequence ought to be reversed, that is, “everyone who is born of God does what is right.” But John writes a conditional sentence that has two parts: a condition (“if you know that he is righteous”) and a conclusion (“you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him”). Note that the conclusion corresponds with the condition: “righteous” with “everyone who does what is right.” It also explains the reason for right conduct. Their conduct is right because believers are children of God.[11]
Their Divine Origin (2:29)
Verse 29 is transitional. As such it forms the conclusion of the preceding section and introduces the chief topic of the discussion that follows. Two vital truths are asserted: First, it is God who imparts spiritual life to His people. They are begotten of him (asv). The terminology implies that the Christian has nothing to do with this impartation of life. He neither effects it nor does he actively cooperate in it; he simply receives it.
Interpreters differ as to the reference in “him.” In context it is simpler to understand it to mean Christ. This is a problem for some who feel the Scriptures consistently speak of the Father as the agent in our new birth. But compare 1 Corinthians 4:15 and John 3:5. It is not especially important whether we refer the word to Christ or to the Father, for obviously the point of the statement is that begetting is a divine work.
Second, the practice of righteousness is the evidence of this birth from God. “If ye know that he [Christ] is righteous, ye know that every one also that doeth righteousness is begotten of him” (asv). As it stands, the verse seems to mean that every man who does right is a Christian. In light of this N. Alexander raises a question: “What is John’s point? Is he really making unconscious Christians out of, say, conscientious, right-doing humanists? A most un-Johannine idea! John surely has in mind only professing Christians, and means: ‘You may be sure that every professing Christian who does right is a Christian in deed and truth’ ” (p. 76).
It is Christ’s nature to be righteous. It must be the nature of His people to do righteousness. “Doeth” translates a present tense in Greek, indicating that the doing of righteousness is habitual, that it is the ruling principle of one’s life. This concept is developed more fully in 3:4–10.
John uses two different words for the idea of knowing. In the first half of the verse “know” (oida) speaks of knowledge that is intuitive and absolute. In the second half of the verse “know” (ginosko) connotes knowledge gained by experience and observation. The idea then is that we know intuitively, as a matter of principle, that Christ is righteous. We are to “take note” of the fact that everyone who has been begotten of Him practices righteousness. The tcnt renders it, “Knowing him to be righteous, you realize that every one who lives righteously has received the new Life from him” (italics mine).
Whether “know” is indicative or imperative is debatable. Both Westcott and Law, among others, prefer the latter. Weymouth brings it out in translation: “Since you know that He is righteous, be assured that every one also who acts righteously is a child of His” (cf. neb, Phillips).[12]
29. Born of him may seem in this context to refer to Christ, but the consistent Johannine terms are to be born ‘of God’ or ‘of the Spirit’, and it is ‘against the tenor of the New Testament to speak of Christians as “begotten of Christ” ’ (Law). We must therefore suppose that there is an abrupt change of person between verses 28 and 29, the he and him referring in verse 28 to Christ and in verse 29 to God. This would certainly be a better transition to the next chapter. Law takes it thus and devotes a long chapter to the relation between the Johannine statements ‘God is righteous’ and ‘God is love’. If you know as a fact (eidēte) that God is righteous, John says, then you will perceive as a logical consequence (ginōskete) that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. The child exhibits the parent’s character because he shares the parent’s nature. A person’s righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it. The false teachers (in their incipient Gnosticism) may have called their initiation into gnōsis a ‘regeneration’; John shows that righteousness, not knowledge, is the principal mark of the regenerate.[13]
29. If ye know that he is righteous. He again passes on to exhortations, so that he mingles these continually with doctrine throughout the Epistle; but he proves by many arguments that faith is necessarily connected with a holy and pure life. The first argument is, that we are spiritually begotten after the likeness of Christ; it hence follows, that no one is born of Christ but he who lives righteously. It is at the same time uncertain whether he means Christ or God, when he says that they who are born of him do righteousness. It is a mode of speaking certainly used in Scripture, that we are born of God in Christ; but there is nothing inconsistent in the other, that they are born of Christ, who are renewed by his Spirit.[14]
Ver. 29.—This verse forms a bridge between the two main divisions of the Epistle The coming of Christ suggests the righteousness of Christ; for it is as the righteous Judge that he is coming, and those who would not be ashamed to meet him at his coming must be righteous also. Once more (ver. 27) we are in doubt between indicative and imperative: γινώσκετε, in spite of the preceding μένετε and following ἴδετε, is probably indicative. To know that God (not Christ; comp. ch. 1:9; John 17:25) is righteous is to perceive that every doer of his (τήν) righteousness is a son of God (not of Christ; we are nowhere in Scripture said to be born of Christ). To partake of that righteousness which is God’s nature is proof of birth from him. With ποιεῖν τὴν δικαιοσύνην, compare ποιεῖν τὴν ἀληθείαν (ch. 1:6; John 3:21). Righteousness must be shown in conduct; mere desire to be righteous will not suffice. And the conduct must be habitual (ὁ ποιῶν not ὁ ποιήσας); a single act of righteousness will not suffice. Note the change from εἰδῆτε to γινώσκετε. To know (intuitively) that God is righteous is to come to know (by experience) that whoever habitually acts righteously is God’s offspring.[15]
2:29 / Keeping the readers’ minds on Christ, the Elder now raises the subject of Christ’s nature or character. This will be his dominant theme throughout this section. He is righteous, or just (dikaios, cf. 1:9, where “God is faithful and just”; 2:1–2, where Jesus Christ is “the Righteous One”; and 3:7 which also refers to Christ as “righteous”). Righteousness is not just holiness or freedom from sin, but includes the ot idea of putting things right or making them just. Here the readers are reminded that the person whose character is like Christ’s (everyone who does what is right, lit., “everyone who is doing [practicing] righteousness”) has been born of God. The family likeness will be present. Those born of God will resemble Christ, because they will share a common characteristic: doing justice or practicing righteousness.
To be born of him, that is, born of God, is a profound idea. In the Fourth Gospel, those who believe in the Word “become children of God” and are “born of God” (John 1:12–13). Repeatedly, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be “born from above” (3:3, 7), or be born of water and the Spirit (3:5, 8). In the letters of John, being born of God occurs in 2:29; 3:9 (twice); 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18 (twice). In two of these verses Jesus is the one who has been born of God (5:1, 18; cf. John 1:14, 18); the other times it is the Christian. To be born of God, one must believe that Jesus is the Christ and live a life of righteousness and love (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:18; cf. Eph. 5:1, 2).
It is likely that the Elder’s opponents were also using the phrase “born of God” and were claiming to be God’s special children. Indeed, this may be another instance of the author using the opponents’ own language to refute them. He was confident that if one looked at the character of the secessionists, one would not see lives that reflected the righteousness of Jesus, and on that basis, their claim to be children of God would clearly be false.[16]
29 The train of thought here is not entirely clear. John has been speaking of the possibility of judgment at the parousia. The judgment is by One who, as the readers know, is righteous,11 and therefore the expected statement is: “If you do not want to be ashamed at his coming, be righteous,” or “If the judge is righteous, those who will be confident when he comes will be the righteous (therefore, be righteous).” There is no difference in meaning between the adjective “righteous,” used to describe Jesus, and the verbal form “does what is right,” used to describe Christians. Both expressions refer to correct moral behavior, acceptable to God.
However, the thought is not as simple as this. What John says is that “everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” A new idea is introduced here, that of spiritual birth; it figures prominently in the rest of the Epistle (3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18; cf. Jn. 1:13; 3:6, 8). The thought is that believers stand in a new relationship to God, analogous to that of children to a father. This is a common picture elsewhere in the New Testament, and has its basis in the Old Testament where God’s people are said to be related to him, like children to a father, and the thought is of his fatherly care for them and their filial duty of obedience toward him.14 The metaphor is taken further when it is expressed in terms of begetting and birth: Christians have received new life from God by a creative act comparable with physical begetting. This is as far as the metaphor can be taken: we never hear in the Bible of a female partner in the act of spiritual birth. The point of the metaphor is rather to indicate that spiritual life comes from God through the agency of the Word and the Spirit. The Christian is thus placed in the same relationship to God as is occupied by Jesus, although John preserves the distinction by reserving the name of “Son” for Jesus and referring to Christians simply as “children” of God.
There are two difficulties about what John says at this point. First, there is the substitution of the idea of being born from God for the idea of remaining in Christ. The new expression has probably been introduced in anticipation of the use of the metaphor in 3:9. At the same time, perhaps it was an easy equivalent for John to use with reference to Christians as those who have received a divine anointing, and to this extent the way had already been prepared for its use. The New Testament has a variety of expressions to describe Christians, and the various writers use them in what sometimes seems to be a fairly indiscriminate manner, and no embarrassment is felt in switching from one to another.
Second, the major difficulty is that the statement made by John seems to be back to front. We expect John to say “everyone who has been born of him does what is right (and therefore is acceptable at the parousia of the righteous One).” Instead he says that doing what is right is the sign of spiritual birth. Hence doing what is right gives assurance that we shall have confidence before him at his coming. What John is trying to stress is that doing what is right is the consequence of spiritual birth; hence if a person does what is right, this is a sign of spiritual birth. Naturally, this does not mean that any morally upright person is a child of God, even though he makes no religious profession; when John says that “Everyone who loves has been born of God” (4:8), he does not mean that atheists who love are really Christians. John is quite clear that being a Christian is dependent on believing in Jesus Christ and loving one another (3:23), and his other remarks must be understood in this context. Here he has in mind the problem of testing the truth of claims to be true Christians within the church, and he asserts that true righteousness (the kind shown by Jesus) is possible only on the basis of spiritual birth. So the readers themselves can take comfort that, if they do what is righteous, this is a sign that they are born of God, and hence that they can have confidence for the day of judgment.[17]
29 Here John weaves together two community slogans, each introduced by hoti, to create the first test in this section: “If you know ‘He is righteous [dikaios],’ ” then you also know, “ ‘Everyone who does what is right [dikaiosynē] has been born of him.’ ” The logic of this test is based on the Johannine maxim that “the child imitates the parent” (Rensberger, 93). If God is indeed righteous—a premise John considers indisputable—then any person who is truly his child will act righteously.
It is clear, however, that John is using dikaiosynē in a highly nuanced way, related to the special meaning of hamartia (“sin”) discussed above. Since “righteousness” is the logical opposite of “sin” (note the contrast at 3:7–8), and since “sin” refers in this context to failure to love one’s brother, “righteousness” must refer to loving one’s brother in obedience to the love command. John has already hinted at this usage at 1:9, stressing that God forgives sinners because he is “faithful and just [dikaios],” and at 3:10 he specifically associates godly righteousness with love for one’s brothers. The righteous person, then, is the one who loves other believers the way God loves them.[18]
Hope Is Manifested by Righteousness
If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. (2:29)
The new birth is inevitably and necessarily accompanied by righteousness (cf. Rom. 6:4; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 4:24). By the same token, all who profess to be saved but do not demonstrate any tangible fruit of righteousness prove that they are actually unforgiven and have an empty hope (cf. Luke 6:43–44; James 2:26). Such individuals can make no legitimate claim to eternal promises, since their lives betray a heart that is still unregenerate.
It is important to understand the different meanings of the words rendered know in this verse. The first occurrence is from oida and has the sense of perceiving an absolute truth, whereas the second occurrence (from ginoskō) conveys “to know by experience,” “recognize,” or “come to perceive.” The apostle John asserts first that if believers know that God is righteous, they can recognize that everyone also who practices righteousness is reflecting His life (cf. 1 Peter 1:13–16); that is, they are born of Him (1 Peter 1:3; cf. John 3:7, where the same verb translated born is used). Thus John reiterates the point that real believers are not verified so much by what they claim as by how they live (Rom. 6:18; cf. Luke 1:6).
Of course, John’s call to personal holiness was not a new concept. The book of Leviticus repeatedly sets forth God’s standard of purity and righteousness (e.g., 18:4–5, 30; 19:2, 37; 20:7, 26; 22:32). In the New Testament, Paul’s letters continually exhort believers to pursue holiness. Romans 12:1–2 is a notable and familiar example:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (cf. 2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 5:27; 1 Thess. 4:7; 1 Peter 1:14–16; 2:11)
In this verse, the apostle John looks from the effect (righteous behavior) to the cause (the new birth) and shows that righteous living—not mere outward profession—evidences the fact that regeneration has truly taken place (James 2:20, 26; 2 Peter 3:11; cf. Rom. 14:17).[19]
[1] Yarbrough, R. W. (2017). 1 John. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1996). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Criswell, W. A., Patterson, P., Clendenen, E. R., Akin, D. L., Chamberlin, M., Patterson, D. K., & Pogue, J., eds. (1991). Believer’s Study Bible (electronic ed., 1 Jn 2:29). Thomas Nelson.
[3] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Jn 2:29). Lexham Press.
[4] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2433). Crossway Bibles.
[5] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (1 Jn 2:29). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[6] Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 1710). T. Nelson Publishers.
[7] Hodges, Z. C. (2010). The First Epistle of John. In R. N. Wilkin (Ed.), The Grace New Testament Commentary (p. 1205). Grace Evangelical Society.
[8] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; pp. 2315–2316). Thomas Nelson.
[9] Walvoord, J. F., & Zuck, R. B., Dallas Theological Seminary. (1985). The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 893). Victor Books.
[10] Utley, R. J. (1999). The Beloved Disciple’s Memoirs and Letters: The Gospel of John, I, II, and III John: Vol. Volume 4 (p. 215). Bible Lessons International.
[11] Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of James and the Epistles of John (Vol. 14, pp. 288–289). Baker Book House.
[12] Vaughan, C. (2011). 1, 2, 3 John (pp. 72–73). Founders Press.
[13] Stott, J. R. W. (1988). The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 19, p. 121). InterVarsity Press.
[14] Calvin, J., & Owen, J. (2010). Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (pp. 201–202). Logos Bible Software.
[15] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). 1 John (pp. 28–29). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
[16] Johnson, T. F. (2011). 1, 2, and 3 John (pp. 66–67). Baker Books.
[17] Marshall, I. H. (1978). The Epistles of John (pp. 167–169). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[18] Thatcher, T. (2006). 1 John. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 458). Zondervan.
[19] MacArthur, J. (2007). 1, 2, 3 John (pp. 113–114). Moody Publishers.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 
.jpg){kind=link}
