17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great commentary, August 11, 2001
This review is from: The Ten Commandments (Paperback)
This is one of the most helpful commentaries I have found on the 10 Commandments. As I prepared to teach the 10 Commandments to the College and Career Sunday School class at my Church I found that I was referring to this work more constantly than any other.
Watson has a great ability to take heavy topics and bring them to a day to day level, which makes this both a great theological work, as well as a practically challenging commentary.
In my mind this is a must have for any serious student of the 10 Commandments.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Puritan - Great Work, September 17, 2004
This review is from: The Ten Commandments (Paperback)
Thomas Watson is one of the most readable of all the puritans. This particular work is one of his finest. This work has an insightful chapter on the relationship to love and commandment. This is a concept that is lost on today's church goer. The modern mind thinks that love and command are mutually exclusive. Biblically they are necessarily related.
In the exposition of the commands, Watson not only tells you the meaning of each commandment, but how it can be used in practical terms. This is a work you will want to use over and over again. This book is great for pastors, Sunday school teachers or Bible study leaders. This is a great tool. See also Watson's volume on the Lord's Prayer which is also a classic and his work The Body of Divinity which is his exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechisim.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good look at God's law, May 12, 2006
This review is from: The Ten Commandments (Paperback)
This little book is the second in a trilogy which comprises "A Body of Practical Divinity", the first volume being titled "A Body of Divinity", and the third being "The Lord's Prayer." The Puritans were known for being thorough and precise, and Watson is no exception. Additionally, Watson seems to be readily accessible to contemporary readers, which is not true of all the Puritans. The book carefully examines each topic, taking the form of brief questions, answers, "uses" (applications), and objections.
The first section, Watson's introduction, looks at Christian obedience, love, the Preface to the Ten Commandments, and a right understanding of the moral law. He then proceeds in section two to look at each commandment in turn. The third chapter deals with the law and sin, specifically man's inability to keep the moral law, degrees of sin, and the wrath of God. The fourth and final section addresses the way of salvation, including faith & repentance, the Word of God, the sacraments, and prayer.
Overall this book is excellent, practical, accessible, and enjoyable. The sections on the preface, the second and fourth commandments, and the wrath of God are the parts that particularly struck me. I rate this book four stars because I think there are a couple of commandments, especially the seventh and eighth, where Watson could have been a little more thorough, and perhaps gone a little deeper (imagine, a Puritan!). He also has some stories in there which (it grieves me to say this), strain credibility, like people being struck by lightening for profaning the Sabbath. But the seventeenth century was a different age, and if Watson goes a little overboard once in a while in his gullibility, he certainly makes up for it in careful attention to God's Word. Those stories do not make up a significant part of the book.
I am glad I read this book, although certain parts were not everything I hoped they would be. Several of the chapters are unsurpassed among books I have read, and overall Watson's treatment is thorough and robust. If you are one of the last few Christians who believe that the Ten Commandments still give us the moral law because they (all ten) are grounded in God's character, that they (all ten) still tell us what it means to be holy, and are the criteria, even though not the source, of our sanctification, I recommend Thomas Watson's little book to you. You will be spurred on in your Christian life, and brought to see again that "the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul."
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
