Background of 2 John

This letter takes its place among the three Letters of John. It was probably written before 1 John, because the false teachers that 2 John refers to have just appeared and not yet left to form their own churches, as we find in 1 John 2:19. The concern in 2 John is about false teachers who are in the church. The style of 2 John corresponds to a type of ancient letter, an epistleAn epistle, simply, is a letter or message. As many as twenty-one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are epistles, letters written to churches or persons for instruction, pastoral care, or discipline. More of petition, that is, a letter asking for something from someone.