This Epistle is addressed to 'The elect lady' and her children, but no intimation is given as to what lady is referred to. Some have taken the word κυρίᾳ as a proper name, and render it ‘To Kyria the elect’.
The epistle exemplifies love governed by truth, accompanied with obedience—in a word, Christ; and gives a warning to the faithful against false teachers, as in the first epistle. To countenance them in any way is to be a partaker of their evil deeds.
The apostle and those with him enjoin obedience, that their work should not be a failure, but that they might receive a full reward.
As in the first epistle, so here, what had been heard ‘from the beginning’, is enforced, in contrast to any professed development of doctrine.
The idea of teachers being humanly accredited is totally absent; each was to be judged by what he taught.