The 10 Commandments of Marriage – review

The 10 Commandments of Marriage by Ed Young is about building a “lifelong marriage that sizzles.” This is a very practical book that offers biblical insight as to how to keep a marriage going in an age of rampant divorce.

The 10 commandments are:
1. Thou Shalt Not Be a Selfish Pig
2. Thou Shalt Cut the Apron Strings
3. Thou Shalt Continually Communicate
4. Thou Shalt Make Conflict Thy Ally
5. Thou Shalt Avoid the Quicksand of Debt
6. Thou Shalt Flee Sexual Temptation - Online and Otherwise
7. Thou Shalt Forgive Your Mate 490 Times
8. Thou Shalt Keep the Home Fires Burning
9. Thou Shalt Begin Again and Again
10. Thou Shalt Build a Winning Team.

There are lots of helpful tidbits contained within the pages of this book and my personal copy has lots of little notes. One particular section dealing devotion uses a humorous analysis of several passages to bring to light a sobering truth:

“Stay on the tracks. Consider the following tracks laid out in Scripture. The first obligation we have as husband and wife is obvious: Love your mate as a cherished husband or wife (Eph. 5:25; Titus 2:4). The Bible instructs both husbands and wives to love one another. Unfortunately, some people have trouble with that mandate. SO the second level of our track may be a bit easier for them: Love your mate as a fellow believer (1 Peter 3:8). If you still don’t think you can fill this bill, then do your best to comply with the third biblical level: Love your mate as a neighbor (Matt. 22:39). If this still feels like too tall of an order, Jesus has one last directive for you: Love your mate as an enemy (Matt. 5:44). The Lord teaches us to love our enemies. If you can’t love your mate at least as much as you love your enemies, then you probably have some problems that go beyond the marital realm. Your first order of business is to make sure of your relationship with the Lord, because without that, no amount of relationship seminars or how-to books will help your marital problems.” (pp 37-38)

The book is an easy to follow and it reads as if it is an adaptation of a sermon series. This book is filled with stories that bolster the points Young is making throughout the book. Now these things are not bad, but I felt that some of the chapters could have used more exposition of Scripture. But in other chapters, Young does a superb job of looking at the text in addressing the issues.