"If you may have come to know that He is righteous, you [all] know that also that every the [one] doing the righteousness out of Him has been born."
-Litmus tests - John here gives us another, another way we can know if someone - if we truly belong to Jesus. #1 - Confessing our sins. #2 - Keeping His commands/Word. #3 - Loving your brother. #4 - Confessing the Son. And now this, #5 - Doing righteousness. It is broader perhaps than keeping God’s Word. It is a heart and a desire and a readiness to do what is right, at the ready, in season and out of season. We don’t run from it. We don’t hide from it. We don’t shirk from it. And it flows from a true knowledge of the character of God, of Who God is, what He is like.
-John has aready affirmed that God is light (1John 1.5-7, 2.8-11), a recurring theme. And here John affirms that God is righteous. Not the first mention - this is another recurring theme (1John 1.9, 2.1). But in other words, God does everything right. He always does the right thing. No rule breaking here. No cutting corners, no short-sheeting the bed or anything else. No compromise or shadiness whatsoever. We’re not talking about being a lemon-sucking joyless prude who is taking all the fun out of life. But fun ≠ rule-breaking. The fun and freedom and thrill we may experience when we are doing something which is not right is 100% fleshy. But it is possible to live a life of joy and adventure and still do what is right. Because fundamentally we are talking about being like our Father in heaven, a deep heartfelt desire to be like Dad, Who happens to be the happiest Being in the universe AND always does what is right. This goes hand in hand with the Light. In Him, not even a glimmer of shadow. In the Father of lights there is no shifting shadow, no variation whatsoever (James 1.17). 100% light, 100% right, 24/7.
-Of course, to have been justified in Christ means that in our Father's eyes we already are having done everything right (yes, breathe that sigh of relief!!!). But this must (should) play out in our day-to-day. True statement: it is always right to do the right thing. And the heart which has truly come to know that this is what the Father is really like will inevitably, invariably want to do the same. The heart which has been truly (re)begotten by our heavenly Father will want to be like Him, will want to and strive to do (it)(all of it!) right, just like Him. This is indeed our (re)birthright, to be AND to do right. It doesn’t mean you never mess up, it doesn’t mean you never sin - but it does involve making it right when you don’t manage to do it right. And, what's more - we have a Helper! But this is another one of the ways which we can know that someone has truly come to know the Father thru Jesus. It is always right - and good - and god-ly - to do what is right.
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