Each month, you’ll hear from one of us on what we’re reading and a little bit about the book. Enjoy!
Can you name the Ten Commandments? Did you memorize them at some point in your spiritual training? How many sermons have you heard on what many call the “Top Ten” list? So often I think of the Ten Commandments as the foundation for believers but more needed for children or new believers. At this point in my life, is there anything new that I’ve not heard before or maybe insight into the Ten Commandments that is more in-depth that I missed? Do I really need to read and study the Ten Commandments as an adult?
Reading Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands by Jen Wilkin brought a fresh perspective on the Ten Commandments to me. I found the book and the refresher on these beautiful words in these commandments more meaningful than ever. Wilkin reminds the reader to delight in these commandments. They are for our benefit.
We often think of law and grace as polar opposites. We don’t see the two walking hand-in-hand. Wilkin, however, reminds us that they are not enemies but friends. The Old Testament and the New Testament are not in opposition; they both demonstrate the justice and compassion of God. “We have come to believe that rules prevent relationship.”1 However, as Wilkin focuses on and systematically unpacks the truth of each of the commandments, we discover that the law leads us to Christ-likeness. Each chapter is filled with biblical truth and helps the reader understand how these ten words, or ten commandments, are meant to honor God, individuals, and community.
One of my favorite chapters was “The Fourth Word” on unhindered rest and the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8-11). I had never noticed that it is the longest and most detailed of the ten commandments. Wilkin uses the Hebrew shabat meaning “cease”2 to dive deeper into the meaning of Sabbath. Quoting Mason King—“Sabbath rest is marked by self-denial”—Wilkin opened a new thought for me as she explored how we drift from Sabbath rest to slavery with our desire for self-gain.
I reread page 67 and highlighted sentences as Wilkin explained that you are to “cease your labor so others may cease theirs as well.”3 Doesn’t that describe the community we live in? Maybe it is just me, but often I can’t rest because no one else around me takes time to rest. As their work continues, I feel that I need to keep working. I don’t want to get behind, be late on a project, or disappoint someone. One of my favorite quotes in the book, of course on page 67, was, “My Sabbath rest should not create or entail labor for others in the family of God, and should be mindful of requiring work for those outside it.”4 The observance of Sabbath creates rest and justice for all involved. In my opinion, Wilkin gave a great summary of Sabbath in two sentences: “We remember the letter of the Sabbath command by resting from labor. We remember the heart of the Sabbath command by laboring for the rest of others.”5 Go ahead and read that again and allow it to wash over you. Such good words to live by in a culture that never seems to rest.
I don’t want to give away the whole book because you need to read it for yourself! However, “The Tenth Word” gave me a new perspective I was not expecting. Focusing on Exodus 20:17, Wilkin subtitled this chapter “Honor in the Heart”—but this is about coveting. Where was she going with this? I quickly found these words, “Covetousness hides in the heart.”6 And, “the heart is a place where sin gestates.”7 Wow. This is so true when you want what everyone else has—the relationship, the job, the cash, the acknowledgment, the skill, the talent, the whatever—fill in the blank. In a world of social media where everyone posts the best photos and statements, it is easy to struggle with discontent. And covetousness creeps in. Wilkin brings hope as she shares how contentment is learned. She does leave you with the thoughts on covetousness but gives practical suggestions for learning contentment in order to break free from comparison.
One of the features that I found most helpful was at the end of each chapter. Wilkin provided verses for meditation, questions for reflection, and a prayer prompt to help the reader process what was read. This helped me to go deeper into the study of each of the commandments and apply what I was reading and understanding to my current life situation.
As Wilkin closes out her book, she reminds her readers that the Ten Words had purpose and meaning for God’s people then, and they still are applicable for us today. They are meant to strengthen us and to guide us to God’s kingdom. They bring about obedience to God, deep in the heart of the individual, when we understand them as intended for transformation of the community.
Michelle Hicks is the managing editor for Journey devotional magazine with Lifeway Women. Michelle served as a freelance writer, campus minister, and corporate chaplain before coming to Lifeway. She is a graduate of the University of North Texas and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Michelle has a deep hunger for God’s Word and wants others to discover the abundant life they can have with Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
1. Jen Wilkin, Ten Words to Live By (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 13.
2. Ibid, 65.
3. Ibid, 67.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid, 70.
6. Ibid, 140.
7. Ibid, 141.
EDIT from Tanya Villani: One very important word I left was love. For without love you are a loud gong. I have prayed over each of these precious women for years now, loving them as Christ does and showing them that love in the midst of my own pain. That is what we are called to do.
Yes it was hard at first to pray in love for some. I did immediately forgive but the love I had for some of them turned to dislike. I was able to with the power of the Holy Spirit eventually realize each of them was hurting too. “Hurting people hurt people.” They neeed to be healed from whatever wounds they had grown up with.
I also neglected to add when I was set free from gossip. I shared a prayer request with others without first asking the person who shared that with me. She later told me how upset she was when she found out as someone had approached her asking her all kinds of questions.
Do you remember the telephone game? You start by whispering a short sentence in one person’s ear and they in turn do it to the person next to them and so on and so on….until it gets back to the first person who whispered the sentence. Many more times than not that sentence gets all garbled up.
That is what happened with the prayer request I had shared. It got all garbled up, added to and so on and so on. I had to say I was wrong, please forgive me to that dear woman of God 22 years ago. I repented.
Then it happened to me. It was devastating and embarrassing. The Holy Spirit really warmed my heart just how important it is to keep a confidence, specifically a prayer request.
I have remained loyal to the Lord in His strength to honor that commitment to keep all prayer requests to myself, unless that person has given me expletive instructions whom I am to share with. Everything anyone has shared with me over the years, I have honored as well, only breaking that confidence if that person was in imminent danger of harming themselves or another.
I have learned to be bold in the strength, love and grace of the Holy Spirit if I am involved in a conversation & others start to gossip, I simply ask them to stop & say hey let’s pray right now for them. They have always stopped talking and we have prayed popcorn prayers for that person….honoring our Lord & Savior.
I still have many things to learn as we each are a work in progress. For those who took the time to read all the way through this post, I do pray the Holy Spirit encouraged, nourished and warmed your heart with a special delight….something only our Heavenly Abba Daddy knew you needed that will put a smile on your face.
Tanya, thank you for sharing that with us!
I really needed to read about rest being for the sake of others. I never thought of that perspective before. So enlightening as it perfectly lines up with the truth of putting the needs of others before ourselves.
With covetousness, I agree wholeheartedly with what Wilkin describes as it “hiding in our hearts.” From my own experiences serving in a variety of leadership roles in Ministry, this “sin” has reared its ugly head in my own heart. As I have turned away from coveting/envy, repenting, choosing instead to rejoice with others gifts, talents, success…. the Holy Spirit has given me discernment to notice when others are coveting me.
It has not always been a pleasant experience. It has developed into a toxic environment where after much prayer & guidance from a trusted mentor/Pastor over a period of years, I have had to sometimes walk away.
I have discovered during those times of prayer, waiting on the Holy Spirit to warm my heart with wisdom, insight, direction, discernment, understanding, mercy, grace, unconditional neverending instant forgiveness, compassion….& searching the Scriptures that many of these women have admired me from afar (my Pastors words to me) but because of their own insecurities are turning that inward. I have always instantly forgiven them.
That sin grows deeper, green eyed monster of coveting/envy sprouts. I have been maliciously slandered, falsely accused, purposely alienated in a leadership circle after the head leader had started a rumor about me, bullied, gaslighted. I am not perfect, but I know from confronting my own envy 20 years ago, how ugly, how hurtful, how wrong, how much damage it can cause & most of all how much it hurts the heart of Adonai. For it ultimately it is Him that I am sinning against.
I have not always felt prompted by the Holy Spirit in person for each women, to tell them I forgive you. I simply trust someday the Holy Spirit will open that door. Any time I have felt in my heart, or the Holy Spirit has pricked my conscience, about something that may have hurt someone I immediately go to that person to ask for their forgiveness. Not with a because of…but with a I was wrong….even if they have wronged me.
All these seasons have taught me to rely more on Christ, more on prayer, digging deeper into the Living Word of God to keep me grounded, ever learning more about what it means to live in all of Christs fullness & joy in the midst of suffering, to always instantly forgive, trusting God to avenge/restore/validate. When the Holy Spirit warms my heart to gently confront in love, to be that peacemaker, as much as possible to get along with others. It is sometimes the enemy at work seeking to tear apart or destroy a relationship that God wants to develop, grow & mature.
I would agree with the fact that we would need to keep the Sabbath holy because Jesus is Holy.
When it comes to covetousness, I think it creeps in when we feel loneliness at the same time. So I would agree that we would need to exercise contentment until God gives us the right relationship with the right people, even with the right man to be our future husbands.