In order to understand what the Apostle is trying to convey here, we must understand the word that he uses for "right." Right is whatever God does. God is the standard for all good behavior. God is always consistent with himself. He will always acts like God. Therefore, whatever he does is right or righteous. "If
you know how God behaves, then you will know that whoever behaves like
God is born of him." The Apostle John is saying, if anything good comes out of the Believer's life, and it should, the Believer can not take credit for it because it the Lord Jesus that is producing the good or right behavior. This makes me think of the Rich Young Ruler who referred to the Lord Jesus as "good" in Luke 18. The Lord Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God." In those days, a potential disciple would approach a Rabbi whom they wanted to follow. If the Rabbi was interested in the guy becoming a disciple, he would ask him certain questions to determine if he was suitable as a disciple. If not, he would be sent away, and if he accepted him, he would say, 'come, follow me' and he became the Rabbi's disciple. One teaching technique that Rabbis used was posing questions. He would ask questions of his disciples, and the disciples would debate among themselves and the Rabbi would listen. When they had arrived upon the correct answer, the discussion would be over and the disciples accepted the Rabbi's yoke or teaching. "God is great and God is good, but without Him we are neither."
Let me close with a story to illustrate our point. A group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago.
They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time
for Christmas night’s dinner. In their rush through the airport, one of
these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of
apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they
all managed to reach the plane, just in time. All but one. He told the
others to go on without him and went back to where the apples were all
over the floor. He was glad he did. The little girl, the apple seller, was totally blind! She was softly
crying, tears running down her cheeks, as she groped for her spilled
produce, the crowd swirling about her, rushing to their flights. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put
them back on the table and helped reorganize her display. He set aside
the bruised and battered apples in a separate basket. When he had
finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please
take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?” She nodded through her tears. He continued, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.” As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister….” He paused and turned to look back. She continued, “Are you Jesus?” 