24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Righteousness is not sinless perfection people talk about, just sinlessness. Perfection comes next through the same abiding in Christ and He in us, and takes a while.
Holiness:
To be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, ALL the fruit of the Spirit must become mature, then we are ensured of our place in heaven.
The above comes from the OP and has a couple of problems to it.
The verse of course is correct, in that he who keeps His commandment abides in Him and He in him. Yet the conclusion is wrong, in that it makes the assumption that after a while we are going to abide in Him and He is us. It might be reasonable to think that with practice we get better at something, but to be perfect??? Paul is careful to point out that we should not make that assumption!
Phl 3:12,13 I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
And in Heb we see another argument against that assumption:
Heb 7:11 So if the priesthood of Levi, on which the law was based, could have achieved the perfection God intended, why did God need to establish a different priesthood, with a priest in the order of Melchizedek instead of the order of Levi and Aaron?
So that assumption that we might obtain righteousness, or perhaps enough righteousness, to be counted worthy and acceptable enough to be considered holy, is and assumption and thinking that the Bible argues against. Which is to say that we are not to think we have achieved but to think that we need to press on!
And in what sense must we press on?
Is it in a sense that we must try to follow the Law and the Sacred Writings, or is it in the sense that we must press on into seeking and personally hearing from our Lord Jesus Christ by faith?
The Law and the Scriptures do not save us, but the Christ is the One who saves us, thus why we called Him Jesus (God's salvation)!
Indeed, if He is abiding in us then we can hear from Him and talk to Him, but we don't always seek Him and hear from Him! We also find that we find that sin dwells in us, even to the point that find like Paul, that we are not doing the thing we want to do, so that sin in us is a principle fact that is discovered by Christians!
Therefore the practice listening to Him who abides in us leads to discernment of spirits and the awareness of both good and evil in us. We find the reality of the battle that is taking place in us! And if that reality has not been found, then what spirit are we listening to? Certainly not the Spirit of God that Paul and John listened to!
With our findings, as Christians, we do not think we have achieved because we realize that we have not. So we press on seeking the voice of our Lord.
With our findings we realize more and more how far off we are from being righteous, and that because we more and more realize what it means that all unrighteousness is sin. My dad used to say that the more you know the more you realize that you don't know. That is how it if to really come to know the Lord. Indeed, the more you listen to the Lord Jesus Christ, via His Holy Spirit, the more you realize that you can not ever come to know the depts of God!! That is what Jesus the Christ understood, so that He made the decision in Himself, to do and say only what He Father told Him; which explains what He is called 'The Word of God'.
So if indeed you can do and say only what 'The Word of God', which is the Son of God who was given to us, then and only then will you achieve perfection and true righteousness. Yet not even the angels in heaven have achieved that, and not even John the Baptist, in the spirit of Elijah, is as great as the least of them.
Therefore we are reckoned as righteous, because of our faith and not because of our good works!
And therefore this statement from the Op, "Righteousness is not sinless perfection people talk about, just sinlessness. Perfection comes next through the same abiding in Christ and He in us, and takes a while." - is wrong!!!!
It promotes our thinking that we have achieved, or at least achieved enough to be considered to have perfection! It is a statement that promotes pride.
Where as actually knowing and listening to Him results in a desire to listen and know Him more, because we realize more and more how fat off we are. Thus actually knowing Him results in more humility and so more commitment to seeking Him more and statements like:
"I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,"
As for me, I do not say that I have achieved, but that I know the One who has achieved it. So I say seek Him, and listen to Him, and do what you can to do what He asks of you! Still know that you are not the Word of God, He is! Know that you are not the perfect One, He is! Therefore do not look to what others and yourself as people who 'achieve' but rather look to them as sinners who by the grace and mercy of God can seek and find the Perfect One. They can indeed get to know Him as their Lord, whom they get instructions from, and as the Wonderful Counselor, in which they can get counsel from, and as their Everlasting Father who will teach them and bring them up correctly, and even as their friend who loves them even when they are wrong, which is often.
People - if you know Him you will understand that your relationship with Him thru faith, is the important thing! That relationship results in your seeking Him daily and listening to Him. It does not result is true righteousness or sinlessness, but rather it results in a desire to listen to Him and please Him as you can - but because or your flesh you can't seem to always do that. Knowing Him humbles you! Yet it also makes you boldly go about telling others about Him and us needing to know Him. Thus not telling others about our perceived righteousness, but His actual righteousness.