1 John 2:29

2:24-29 The truth of Christ, abiding in us, is a means to sever from sin, and unites us to the Son of God, Joh 15:3,4. What value should we put upon gospel truth! Thereby the promise of eternal life is made sure. The promise God makes, is suitable to his own greatness, power, and goodness; it is eternal life. The Spirit of truth will not lie; and he teaches all things in the present dispensation, all things necessary to our knowledge of God in Christ, and their glory in the gospel. The apostle repeats the kind words, little children; which denotes his affection. He would persuade by love. Gospel privileges oblige to gospel duties; and those anointed by the Lord Jesus abide with him. The new spiritual nature is from the Lord Christ. He that is constant to the practice of religion in trying times, shows that he is born from above, from the Lord Christ. Then, let us beware of holding the truth in unrighteousness, remembering that those only are born of God, who bear his holy image, and walk in his most righteous ways.

{27} If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him. (27) A passing over to the treatise following, which tends to the same purpose, but yet is more ample, and handles the same matter in another way, for before he taught us to go from the effects to the cause, and in this that follows, he goes from the causes to the effects. This is the sum of the argument, God is the fountain of all righteousness, and therefore they that give themselves to righteousness, are known to be born of him, because they resemble God the Father.

1 John 2:29 . In view of the preceding verse δίκαιος must refer to Christ ( cf. 1 John 2:1 ), and it is equally certain that ἐξ αὐτοῦ refers to the Father, since “begotten of Christ” ( cf. Tennyson’s “our fair father Christ”) is not a Scriptural idea. The abrupt transition evinces St. John’s sense of the oneness of the Father and the Son ( cf. 1 John 2:24 ; John 10:30 ). γινώσκετε , scitote (Vulg.), rather cognoscite (Calv.), “get to know,” “recognise” (see note on 1 John 2:3 ); perceive the blessed inference, appropriate your birthright. It enfeebles the sentence to take the verb as indicat.

Lest he should be thought only solicitous to preserve among them the right notions of the Christian docrine, as if that alone would suffice them for their salvation and blessedness, (which was the conceit of the Gnostics, touching their own notions, that the entertaining of them would save men, whatsoever men they were, or howsoever they lived), he subjoins this serious monition: If ye know, & c., intimating, that whatsoever they had of the knowledge of God would avail them nothing, if, whereas he is righteous, they were not transformed by it into his likeness, and enabled thereby to do righteousness, which alone would evidence their Divine birth, since God hath no children destitute of his image, or who resemble him not.

1 John 2:29 . Ἐὰν εἰδῆτε , if ye know ) From the mention of the future manifestation of the Son and the sons of God, he derives a new discussion on sin and righteousness.— δίκαιός ἐστι ) Jesus Christ is Righteous : 1 John 2:1 ; 1 John 3:5-6 .— γινώσκετε ) ye acknowledge .— πᾶς ) every one , and he alone.— γεγέννηται , is born ) The righteous produces the righteous.

If ye know - ye know (ἐὰν εἰδῆτε - γινώσκετε) If ye know absolutely that He is righteous, ye perceive that every one, etc. See on John 2:24. Ye perceive may be taken as imperative: perceive or know ye. Is born of Him (ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται) The interpreters differ as to the reference of Him; some referring it to God, and others to Christ. Against the latter is the fact that men are not said to be born of Christ, but of God; and that to be born of God is a characteristic phrase of John, while to be born of Christ is a phrase which occurs nowhere. On the other hand, the undoubted reference to Christ in 1 John 2:28, would seem to demand a similar reference here. Men are said to abide in Christ as well as in God, and to be born of the Spirit. Westcott's remark is pertinent. "When John thinks of God in relation to men, he never thinks of Him apart from Christ (see 1 John 5:20); and again, he never thinks of Christ in His human nature without adding the thought of His divine nature. Thus a rapid transition is possible from the one aspect of the Lord's divine-human person to the other." Righteous (δίκαιος) Used by John both of God and of Christ. Of God, 1 John 1:9; John 17:25; Revelation 16:5; of Christ, 1 John 2:1; 1 John 3:7. Compare Acts 3:14; Acts 7:52; Acts 22:14. Is born of Him (ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται) Rev., begotten. The first occurrence of the phrase in the Epistle.

Verse 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 (verse 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. 1 John 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 ( 1 John 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. 1 John 2:29

29. The heading of the second division of the Epistle: "God is righteous; therefore, every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." Love is the grand feature and principle of "righteousness" selected for discussion, 1Jo 2:29-3:3. If ye know … ye know—distinct Greek verbs: "if ye are aware (are in possession of the knowledge) … ye discern or apprehend also that," &c. Ye are already aware that God ("He" includes both "the Father," of whom the believer is born (end of this verse, and 1Jo 3:1), and "the Son," 1Jo 2:1, 23) is righteous, ye must necessarily, thereby, perceive also the consequence of that truth, namely, "that everyone that doeth righteousness (and he alone; literally, the righteousness such as the righteous God approves) is born of Him." The righteous produceth the righteous. We are never said to be born again of Christ, but of God, with whom Christ is one.

Hollaz in Alford defines the righteousness of God, "It is the divine energy by whose power God wills and does all things which are conformable to His eternal law, prescribes suitable laws to His creatures, fulfils His promises to men, rewards the good, and punishes the ungodly." doeth—"For the graces (virtues) are practical, and have their being in being produced (in being exercised); for when they have ceased to act, or are only about to act, they have not even being" [ŒCUMENIUS]. "God is righteous, and therefore the source of righteousness; when then a man doeth righteousness, we know that the source of his righteousness is God, that consequently he has acquired by new birth from God that righteousness which he had not by nature. We argue from his doing righteousness, to his being born of God. The error of Pelagians is to conclude that doing righteousness is a condition of becoming a child of God" [Alford most truly]. Compare Lu 7:47, 50: Her much love evinced that her sins were already forgiven; not, were the condition of her sins being forgiven.

If ye know that he is righteous - This is not said as if there could be any doubt on the subject, but merely to call their attention to it as a well-known truth, and to state what followed from it. Everyone who has any true acquaintance with God, must have the fullest conviction that he is a righteous Being. But, if this be so, John says, then it must follow that only those who are truly righteous can regard themselves as begotten of Him. Ye know - Margin, "know ye." The Greek will bear either construction, and either would make good sense. Assuming that God is righteous, it would be proper to state, as in the text, that it followed from this that they must know that only those who are righteous can be regarded as begotten of Him; or, assuming this to be true, it was proper to exhort them to be righteous, as in the margin. Whichever interpretation is adopted, the great truth is taught, that only those who are truly righteous can regard themselves as the children of God. That everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him - Or rather, is begotten of Him; is truly a child of God. This truth is everywhere taught in the Bible, and is worthy of being often repeated. No one who is not, in the proper sense of the term, a righteous man, can have any wellfounded pretensions to being regarded as a child of God.

If this be so, then it is not difficult to determine whether we are the children of God. (1) if we are unjust, false, dishonest, we cannot be His children. (2) if we are indulging in any known sin, we cannot be. (3) if we are not truly righteous, all visions and rapture, all zeal and ardor, though in the cause of religion, all that we may pride ourselves on in being fervent in prayer, or eloquent in preaching, is vain. (4) if we are righteous, in the true and proper sense, doing that which is right toward God and toward people, to ourselves, to our families, to our neighbors, to the world at large, to the Saviour who died for us, then we are true Christians; and then, no matter how soon he may appear, or how solemn and overwhelming the scenes that shall close the world, we shall not be ashamed or confounded, for we shall hail him as our Saviour, and rejoice that the time has come that we may go and dwell with him forever.

1 John 2:29 to 1 John 3:12 . The Children of God and the Children of the Devil 29 . If ye know that he is righteous ] This probably does not mean Christ, although the preceding verse refers entirely to Him. ‘To be born of Christ’, though containing “nothing abhorrent from our Christian ideas”, is not a Scriptural expression; whereas ‘to be born of God’ is not only a common thought in Scripture, but is specially common in this Epistle and occurs in the very next verse. And clearly ‘He’ and ‘Him’ must be interpreted alike: it destroys the argument ( justus justum gignit , as Bengel puts it) to interpret ‘He is righteous’ of Christ and ‘born of Him’ of God. Moreover, this explanation gets rid of one abrupt change by substituting another still more abrupt. That ‘He, Him, His’ in 1 John 2:28 means Christ, and ‘He, Him’ in 1 John 2:29 means God, is some confirmation of the view that a new division of the letter begins with 1 John 2:29 . That ‘God is righteous’ see 1 John 1:9 and John 17:25 . But S. John is so full of the truth that Christ and the Father are one, and that Christ is God revealed to man, that he makes the transition from one to the other almost imperceptibly. Had his readers asked him of one of these ambiguous passages, ‘Are you speaking of Christ or of God’? he would perhaps have replied, ‘Does it matter’?