2 John 1:1
The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;
The speaker calls himself the elder, using the word presbuteros, and he is John, a minister addressing a church and its members. In its direct setting the verse is a letter to an individual elect lady, a woman in the church, and her family, with her children addressed through her to strengthen and comfort her. The lady also illustrates the church, with her children representing its members, so that a particular person who represents the church along with her children is addressed.
On another understanding, the elect lady and her children mean only the church as a body, the ecclesia, not an individual woman and her family. On another understanding, the identity is uncertain: the phrase may refer either to a church or to an actual person. The elect lady may be taken either as an individual or as a church, and the distinction does not change the teaching of the letter.
Those addressed are loved in the truth by the elder, and that love is shared by all who have known the truth. The concern for children walking in the truth applies to the joy of missionaries when the children of converts continue in the faith.