2 John 1:12,13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Having many things to write Concerning these and other subjects; I would not Ουκ εβουληθην, I was not minded, to communicate them by paper and ink Probably the apostle meant that he had many things to say concerning the characters and actions of the false teachers; perhaps also he wished to mention to her the names of those that he had principally in view. But these things he did not think it proper to write in a letter; especially as he proposed to visit this matron and her children soon, and to converse with them personally. The children of thy elect Or Christian sister, greet thee It seems she was absent, if not dead, when the apostle wrote this. It is justly observed by Macknight, that “the word elect here, as in 2 John 1:1, doth not signify chosen from eternity to salvation. For the apostle could not know that the matron's sister was so elected, unless the matter had been made known to him by a particular revelation, which is not alleged to have been the case by any who so interpret election.” But it signifies, as the same expression generally does, in other passages of Scripture, a true believer in Christ, who, as such, is in a state of acceptance with God, and one of his chosen people. See on Ephesians 1:3-7. It is proper to observe here also, that the salutations which the Christians in the first age gave to each other, were not of the same kind with the salutations of unbelievers, which were wishes of temporal health and felicity only; but they were prayers for the health and happiness of their souls, and expressions of the most sincere love. See 3 John, 2 John 1:2. The apostle sent this matron the salutation of the children of her sister, to intimate to her that they were all Christians, and that they persevered in the true doctrine of the gospel.