If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.
ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him: Since it is a fact of absolute knowledge that God is righteous, it should be readily understandable that a person who is born of God will practice righteousness in his life. The child takes on the characteristics of the parent, "like father, like son." And, conversely, it should be easily perceived that the one who "doeth righteousness is born of Him." "Doeth" does not speak of a one-time act; it denotes habitual action, for the Greek term is in the present tense. The person who exhibits righteousness as the general tenor of his life gives evidence that he has been born of God and, hence, is a child of the heavenly Father. Wuest says, "’Born’ is from the perfect participle of gennao. The perfect tense speaks of a past completed action having present results" (140). We know that one must obey certain righteous rules of God in order to be born again (John 3:3-5; Titus 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 3:27). Thereafter, one must continue in the performance of righteous acts to prove that he has been born again. We prove that we are the children of a righteous Father by obedience to His commandments, "for all (God’s) commandments are righteousness" (Psalms 119:172).