1 John 2:29 to 1 John 5:12. The Characteristics of God's Children.
1 John 2:29 to 1 John 3:3. Because God, made known to us in Christ, is righteous, those who claim to be His children must be like Him, with a goodness which the world does not understand and which at Christ's manifestation will be perfected.
1 John 2:29. (read mg.) connects most naturally with the argument that follows. He in he is righteous ought, in view of 1 John 2:28, to refer to Christ, whilst begotten of him, according to general NT usage, should mean begotten of God. The somewhat loose use of the pronoun is an illustration of the ease with which John's thought passed from God to Christ and vice versa, the identity between them being regarded as so complete.
1 John 3:1. knew him not: an echo of John 17:25.*
1 John 3:2 b. We shall be changed by beholding (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:18); seeing Christ we shall pass into His likeness. Christ is the type after which all God's children are to be fashioned.