Again, there is an evident contrast between those captives of the devil

who obtain deliverance by `repentance to the acknowledging of the truth'

(2:25), and those who are `ever learning and never able to come to an

acknowledgment of the truth' (3:7).  Moreover, we see a parallel thought in

the injunction of 2:16, to `shun', with the injunction of 3:5 `from such turn

away'.  With the material now before us, it is difficult to go far wrong in

arriving at the structure of the epistle: