Title: Ten Words to Live By: Delighting In and Doing What God Commands
Author: Jen Wilkin
Publisher: Crossway Publishers

When it comes to things that people recognize from the Bible, the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament ranks high on the list. You do not have to be a follower of Christianity or Judaism to know what the Ten Commandments are. There is a sculpture of Moses that hangs in the House Chamber of the United States Congress that serves to remind us that many of the laws of our land find their roots in the Ten Commandments.

For something to be so well-known, it is interesting to me to find that there are still so many questions about these “Ten Words” that were given by God to the Israelites centuries ago. In her latest book, Jen Wilkin seeks to “present a fresh biblical look at the Ten Commandments, showing how they come to bear on our lives today as we seek to love God and others, to live in joyful freedom, and to long for that future day when God will be rightly worshiped for eternity.”¹ I find that in Ten Words to Live By, Wilkin does a phenomenal job with this task.

From the beginning of the book, Wilkin shows that while Christianity is about a relationship with the living God of the universe, there are some laws that have to be in place. This is an important point to make during the times that we live where many want to make things just about them and how they like them to be. There is a standard that has been set, and we are not the ones who drew that line in the sand.

Wilkin shows how the Ten Words (another common phrase for the Ten Commandments) help us to live at peace with God and others. She takes a chapter to devote to each of the Ten Commandments, and she uses great insight to help the reader to get a better understanding of what each Commandment is saying to us.

Wilkin is a gem that God has given to the Church to help understand God’s Word in a mighty way. I appreciate the style of writing and teaching that she uses in presenting God’s Word clearly and showing how it relates both to the original context and to today’s world.

Ten Words to Live By is a very easy read. I believe that it took me all of a couple of days to work through from cover to cover. Each chapter is wrapped up with some “verses for meditation” to help the reader get a better understanding of the content from God’s Word. There are also “questions for reflection” at the end of each chapter that lead the reader to really internalize what he or she has just read.

RECOMMENDATION

After reading Ten Words to Live By, I have come to the conclusion that this is a book that should be on every person’s bookshelf. Wilkin has done a wonderful job in taking the timeless truths of God’s Word and made given the Church a tool to better understand them. This book is equipped to take the reader to a deeper and more personal understanding of the Ten Commandments.

¹ used from Crossway Publisher’s website (https://www.crossway.org/books/ten-words-to-live-by-tpb/) about Ten Words to Live By

*** A free copy of this book was provided to me by Crossway Publishers in return for an honest review.