II and III John form part of the collection known as the "Catholic Epistles" though each has a named addressee.

II John is addressed to "The elect lady", which may be a nickname for a particular church, or may refer to a particular person. Indeed, it had been argued the "Eklekta Kuria" may actually be the name of a person.

The context appears to be one in which congregations met in members' homes and were visited by missionaries from outside the city. John warns against untrustworthy visitors, and says that they should not be given (official?) hospitality.

III John is even shorter, and is mainly taken up with a quarrel between the writer and "Diotrophes", who has been blocking correspondence and refusing hospitality visitors, including the writer's friend, Demetrius.

III John is not mentioned in early church literature, and Knox considers that it may have been considered of no great importance until a canon of scripture was being defined, and III John was produced from some church's archives.