These [things] have I written unto you
The little children, who were most likely to be imposed upon by
antichrists and deceivers:
concerning them that seduce you.
The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions render it, "for them
that seduce you"; not that they were actually seduced and carried
away with the error of the wicked; for though God's elect may be
staggered and waver, and be tossed to and fro by false teachers,
and their doctrines, yet they cannot be totally and finally
deceived: but the sense is, these men endeavoured to seduce them:
they lay in wait to deceive, and attempted to deceive them, by
walking in craftiness, and handling the word of God deceitfully;
and therefore that they might be known, and so shunned and
avoided, the apostle points them out, and shows who they are;
that they are such who deny that Jesus is the Christ, and do not
own neither the Father nor the Son; in doing which he acted the
part of a tender Father, a faithful shepherd, and a careful
monitor.