These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you - Respecting their character, and in order to guard you against their arts. The word "seduce" means to lead astray; and it here refers to those who would seduce them "from the truth," or lead them into dangerous error. The apostle does not mean that they had actually seduced them, for he states in the following verse that they were yet safe; but he refers to the fact that there was danger that they might be led into error.

These things have I written - Either meaning the whole epistle, or what is contained in the preceding verses, from the beginning of the 18th to the end of the 25th.

Them that seduce you - Περι των πλανωντων ὑμας· That is, the deceivers that were among them, and who were labouring to pervert the followers of Christ.

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.

Seduce (πλανώντων)

See on 1 John 1:8. Rev., lead astray.

{25} These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

(25) The same Spirit who endues the elect with the knowledge of the truth and sanctifies them, gives them the gift of perseverance, to continue to the end.

2:26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. All these words about Anti-Christ; all in 1Jo 2:18-29 is to put them on their guard against false teachers.

2:26 These things - From 1Jo 2:21. I have written to you - St. John, according to his custom, begins and ends with the same form, and having finished a kind of parenthesis, 1Jo 2:20 - 26, continues, 2:27, what he said in the twentieth verse , concerning them that would seduce you.

26. These things-(1Jo 2:18-25).

have I written-resumed from 1Jo 2:21 and 1Jo 2:14.

seduce you-that is, are trying to seduce or lead you into error.

2:24-29 The truth of Christ, abiding in us, is a means to sever from sin, and unites us to the Son of God, Joh 15:3,4. What value should we put upon gospel truth! Thereby the promise of eternal life is made sure. The promise God makes, is suitable to his own greatness, power, and goodness; it is eternal life. The Spirit of truth will not lie; and he teaches all things in the present dispensation, all things necessary to our knowledge of God in Christ, and their glory in the gospel. The apostle repeats the kind words, little children; which denotes his affection. He would persuade by love. Gospel privileges oblige to gospel duties; and those anointed by the Lord Jesus abide with him. The new spiritual nature is from the Lord Christ. He that is constant to the practice of religion in trying times, shows that he is born from above, from the Lord Christ. Then, let us beware of holding the truth in unrighteousness, remembering that those only are born of God, who bear his holy image, and walk in his most righteous ways.