Sequels are usually inferior to the originals. This is true of movies—Rocky was a blockbuster, but Rocky II, Rocky III...Rocky VI (or however many there are) didn’t do as well. It’s also true of books. In the original, the first edition, the initial idea is fresh and new. What follows is simply a rehash with a twist. It’s interesting, however, that the pattern of inferiority for sequels isn’t true of books in the Bible. Second Samuel isn’t a less exciting or less truthful book than 1 Samuel. And 2 Corinthians isn’t less insightful or less pointed than 1 Corinthians. Nor is 2 Timothy less important to the church than 1 Timothy. Most of us may be more familiar with the first book than we are the second, but second volumes have a world of spiritual wealth and deserve as much attention as their older siblings. This is true of 2 Peter.

2 Peter 1:10, 12–13; 2:1–3; 3:1–6, 8–16

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