If you know that he is just, know ye, that every one also who doth justice is born of him.
εαν ειδητε οτι δικαιος εστιν γινωσκετε οτι πας ο ποιων την δικαιοσυνην εξ αυτου γεγεννηται
9 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Since some might ask what they must do to become pleasing to Him, the Apostle teaches this too, saying: if you have known that He is righteous, then without doubt you also know that everyone who does righteousness has been born of Him. For the Righteous One begets the righteous.
For the righteous one begets the righteous.
The foundation of our righteousness is in faith. We shall hardly find perfect righteousness except among the angels, and even among them scarcely, if they are compared with God. Yet if there can be any perfect righteousness among souls created by God, it is found among the angels and saints, among the good and righteous. They do not give themselves over to sin, have not fallen into pride, always abide in the contemplation of the Word of God, and have no joy other than Him by whom they were created.
Those who have been justified and sanctified by gift must show the fruits of justification. They must bear witness by righteous deeds to that righteousness received through faith.
In this way they show that they have truly been born of God, Who is eternal Righteousness, according to what is said: "If you know that He is righteous, know also that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him" (1 Jn 2:29).
That is, a man born of God is known by the doing of righteousness.
Christian, if you wish to understand what it means to do righteousness, attend to the following reflection.
Righteousness is that virtue which teaches us to render to all what is due. Therefore it is a universal virtue, containing all virtues within itself.
It teaches what we must render to God and to our neighbor. Every true virtue, whatever it may be, is contained in righteousness.
It is portrayed in all ten commandments of God, as is every true virtue. Therefore, to fulfill God's commandments and to do righteousness are one and the same.
As righteousness contains every virtue, so unrighteousness contains every sin. When a man breaks any commandment of God, he does unrighteousness and sins against righteousness.
Thus every sin is against righteousness.
Therefore righteousness requires us to know the one God by Whom we were created. Besides Him we must acknowledge no gods.
We must honor, love, fear, obey, and call upon Him alone. We must hope and trust in Him alone, and remember His holy name with honor and reverence.
The same righteousness wills that we should not do to our neighbor, that is, to any man, what we do not want done to ourselves.
It also wills that we should do to him what we want done to ourselves.
Christ expressed this in His Gospel: "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. For this is the law and the prophets" (Mt 7:12).
Since no one desires evil for himself, by the power of righteousness he must neither do nor wish evil to his neighbor.
Since everyone desires good for himself, he must also desire and do good to his neighbor.
It follows that he who does evil to his neighbor sins against righteousness. So also does he who fails to do good when he can.
For a man cannot do everything he wishes.
From this one may rightly conclude that we must not only refrain from doing or wishing evil to our enemies. We must also wish and do them good.
Thus you see, Christian, what it means to do righteousness.
It means to know the one true God, to fear, love, honor, and obey Him above all, and to place all hope in Him.
It means to submit one's heart to Him with humility and patience, and to ask and expect every good thing from Him alone.
It also means to have and show mutual and sincere love for one another.
To this the word of God and our conscience guide us. For this we were reborn, renewed, and justified in holy Baptism, that we might bring forth the fruits of righteousness.
There is yet another inducement to fulfill the commandments of Christ: the reminder of the dignity that adorns true Christians who faithfully fulfill the commandments of Christ the Savior.
If you know that He, Christ the Savior, is righteous, know also that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him.
If you know that He, as man and the only-begotten Son of God, the true God-man, is wholly righteous and all-holy, then you must also know another truth.
You know this perfectly, as those enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit and instructed by Him. Therefore you must always keep in memory that everyone who does righteousness and fulfills God's commandments has been reborn of God the Father by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
In Holy Scripture, to do righteousness usually means to fulfill the law of God, to do good works (Ps 14:2; Rom 9:30; 1 Jn 3:7), or to fulfill the will of God.
Know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him.
The Apostle first commands us to abide in Jesus Christ: "And now, children, abide in Him." Then he shows how we may abide in Him, and how we may be assured of union with Him.
He also shows what can bear witness that we abide in Him. This abiding in the Lord is witnessed or manifested by doing righteousness, that is, by fulfilling the commandments of God.
Know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him.
Whoever does good works according to God's commandments abides in God. Good works performed according to the teaching of Christ testify that the one who does them is born of God.
Abiding in Him, and with the help of His Spirit, he does righteousness.
To be born of God means the same as to be a son of God. This is clear from the words of the Epistle (1 Jn 3:1), which we shall examine in the next discourse.
Natural children usually retain the traits of their parents. For this reason they often resemble them in their actions, which disclose their qualities.
So also the children of God, reborn through faith in Jesus Christ and made partakers of the divine nature by the grace of the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:4), receive Godlike qualities and express them by their deeds.
Bearing within themselves the seed of divine grace, they bring forth saving fruits from this holy seed in their thoughts, desires, and deeds.
Their inward and outward actions, by the power of regenerating and sanctifying grace, are perfected according to the image of the divine perfections.
So the Lord teaches: "Therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48).
Knowing this, knowing that God is righteous and will render to each according to his works, one must also know that every man who lives according to the law of righteousness has been born of Him. He is a child of God and heir of the promises. On the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, he will stand before Him with firm hope of being clothed in fine linen, clean and bright, the fine linen of the justification of the saints (Rev 19:8).
Jesus Christ is called righteous both in relation to the Judgment mentioned above by the Apostle, and in relation to the virtues which must distinguish all who are born of God.
He is especially so, being born from the very essence of God Himself, the most righteous and most holy.
"If you have known that He is righteous, then without doubt you also know that everyone who does righteousness is born of Him. For the Righteous One begets the righteous.
And what great honor and boldness this gives, each of you knows. You likewise know what manner and what measure of love and goodness He grants us.
For you know that He has given you the right to be and to be regarded as His children" (Theophylact).
The connection with what precedes and follows is this. You, believers, abide in Christ and in His teaching, for in Him is your righteousness. Through Him you have regeneration from God and adoption by Him, by which you become pure from sin; verses 27-3?, 10; cf. 1 Jn 2:1-2.
“If you know.” From the anointing from the Holy One received by believers (verses 20, 27), you know, or at least ought to know. You know this also from the teaching you received from the beginning.
Consequently, you know it both from your own inward spiritual experience and from outward instruction (Rom 10:17).
“That He is righteous.” Who is He? From the connection of the discourse, both in this verse and in those that follow, this is not entirely clear. Therefore it requires some clarification.
In the verse under consideration, verse 29, “He is righteous,” according to the connection of verses 27 and 28, refers to Christ. From Him believers received the anointing, and He will appear as Judge at His coming.
But in the same verse the word “He” signifies not Christ, but God the Father, from whom everyone who does righteousness has been born.
For the expression that a believer is born of Christ, or of the Son of God, is not used in the language of the New Testament writings. Moreover, the following verses speak only of birth from God, children of God, and adoption by God.
So also in later sayings: 1 Jn 3:1, 2, 8, 9, 10; 1 Jn 4:7; 1 Jn 5:1, 4, 18.
Thus the word “He” in this verse appears to be used both of Christ and of God the Father. In the first saying it refers to Christ, and in the last to God the Father.
There is no defining separation between the One and the Other, but rather their mutual union; so also in verses 1, 2, 3 and later in chapter 3.
What does this mean? It means that the apostle is so deeply penetrated by the thought of the highest mystery of the inseparability of the Triune Godhead that, when speaking, for example, of the regeneration of a believer, he speaks of the Godhead in three Hypostases with a certain indefiniteness.
Yet one cannot fail to see that this indefinite inseparability of the Persons is without confusion. The regeneration of man into new life is attributed to all the Persons of the worshipful Trinity, as an action common to them all.
Therefore it is ascribed both to God in general, as below in 5:4, and in particular to God the Father; cf. Jas 1:17-18; 1 Pet 1:3; Tit 3:5.
It is also ascribed to God the Son, as in Eph 2:15 and 2 Cor 5:17, and to God the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:3, 5, 6).
Therefore there is nothing strange or astonishing if the apostle, speaking in the present verse about the Father and the Son, speaks of those born of God as born of Christ, or as adopted by God through His Son.
Further on he speaks of the children of God as children of God the Son. The expression “children of the Son of God” is unusual and cannot be usual, since in the Most Holy Trinity the Father and the Son are equal and co-honored.
This is why the apostle, speaking in one sentence of the Father and the Son in the one God, designates both the One and the Other by one pronoun: “He.”
“That He,” that is, Jesus Christ, “is righteous,” according to His person and messianic dignity. He is righteous not only in the sense of being just, a property the apostle above attributes to God the Father (1 Jn 1:9; cf. note).
Yet, because of the connection with verse 28, the notion of righteousness in the sense of justice at Christ’s judgment during His coming is also included here.
He is righteous also as the One who in His own person and work fulfilled all righteousness; cf. Mt 3:15 and note.
By virtue of this, He justifies believers in Him before God. He requires righteousness from them in life, and by the power and action of the Holy Spirit grants them justification before God and righteousness before the law of the Spirit of Christ.
“Some might ask what they must do to become pleasing to Him. The apostle teaches this also, saying: if you have known that He is righteous, then without doubt you know that he who does righteousness has been born of Him.
For the Righteous One begets the righteous. Each of you knows what great honor and boldness this brings, and what great and abundant grace and love He gives us” (Theophylact).
If He is righteous, and if you know this firmly and without doubt, then together with this you must also know firmly and without doubt that everyone who does righteousness has been born of Him, that is, of God.
To do, or to practice, righteousness in the language of Scripture usually means to act according to righteousness, to have uprightness in the heart, or, what is the same, to do the will of God, withdrawing from evil.
Then conscience justifies our actions and does not condemn them.
“Born of Him”; see the note on 1 Pet 1:3, 23. This means spiritual birth from above, by water and the Spirit in the mystery of Christian baptism, or regeneration, about which Christ teaches; cf. Jn 3:2-6 and note.
“Everyone,” therefore, means that regeneration, or adoption by God, does not extend to all, and not all the regenerate can be called sons of God.
Christ died and became the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). But only those who do or practice righteousness, and who fulfill the will of God according to righteousness, can be called born of God, or sons of God...
In conclusion, the Apostle again persuades Christians to abide in Jesus Christ. At the same time he reminds them that He will come a second time.
For this reason Christians have a double need to live righteously. First, they must meet Him fearlessly and worthily. Second, they must be truly like Him, His actual offspring (see 2 Cor 5:17).
What the holy Apostle John wrote for the believers of his time, he also wrote for us.
He wrote so that we too might have communion with the Apostles, and through them with God the Father and His Son.
He wrote so that we might keep God's commandments, hold firmly and unchangeably to the holy apostolic faith, and have spiritual joy.
He wrote so that we might truly hope to inherit eternal life through the merits of our Savior.
Thus, on the day of His glorious coming, we may hear from Him the sweetest voice: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt 25:34).
Therefore, readers, let us take care always to abide in the Lord. Let us act in all things according to righteousness and live in a manner worthy of our Christian calling.
We know that this calling, to be children of God, was accomplished through the shedding of the most precious Blood of the only-begotten Son of God.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 16 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS