Today’s devotion comes from Job chapter 32. Due to the length of this devotion and the importance of teaching and correction, we will pause a few days to meditate on today’s devotion. The next devotion, God willing, will be on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
“Then these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram burned; against Job his anger burned because he justified himself before God. And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job. Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he. And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men his anger burned.
6 So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite spoke out and said,
“I am young in years and you are old;
Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you what I think.
7 “I thought age should speak,
And increased years should teach wisdom.
8 “But it is a spirit in man,
And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
9 “The abundant in years may not be wise,
Nor may elders understand justice.
10 “So I say, ‘Listen to me,
I too will tell what I think.’
11 “Behold, I waited for your words,
I listened to your reasonings,
While you pondered what to say.
12 “I even paid close attention to you;
Indeed, there was no one who refuted Job,
Not one of you who answered his words.
13 “Do not say,
‘We have found wisdom;
God will rout him, not man.’
14 “For he has not arranged his words against me,
Nor will I reply to him with your arguments.
15 “They are dismayed, they no longer answer;
Words have failed them.
16 “Shall I wait, because they do not speak,
Because they stop and no longer answer?
17 “I too will answer my share,
I also will tell my opinion.
18 “For I am full of words;
The spirit within me constrains me.
19 “Behold, my belly is like unvented wine,
Like new wineskins it is about to burst.
20 “Let me speak that I may get relief;
Let me open my lips and answer.
21 “Let me now be partial to no one,
Nor flatter any man.
22 “For I do not know how to flatter,
Else my Maker would soon take me away.” Job chapter 32.
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This devotion will meditate on some Scriptures that provide guidance on teaching and correction.
“Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers,” 1 Timothy 5:1.
“The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
“and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” 2 timothy 3:15.
“Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.” 1 Timothy 4:13.
“Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” 1 Timothy 4:14-16.
“Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.” 1 Timothy 4:12.
“Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:6-13.
“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.” 1 Timothy 6:10-11.
In addition to make sure that we are ready to teach and correct by our own pursuit of these qualities of righteousness and godliness etc., we need to make sure that we are ready to teach and correct by sufficiently studying studying God’s Word and holding to sound doctrine.
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.
“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” Matthew 24:11.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:3-5.
“But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” Titus 2:1.
“holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.” Titus 1:9.
Scripture emphasizes the importance of truth.
“‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’” Matthew 15:9 and Mark 7:7.
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24.
Not any kind of worship is sufficient, but worship in truth is needed.
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:1-3.
Not any kind of zeal is sufficient, but zeal “in accordance with knowledge”, or in other words, in accordance with truth, is needed.
There are those who “did not receive the love of truth so as to be saved”. 2 Thessalonians 2:10.
Not any kind of love is sufficient, but “the love of truth” is needed to be saved.
Doctrine is simply teachings.
Many churches portray doctrine as unnecessary, divisive, or worse. They simply rest on their claim that they believe the Bible and teach it.
Many churches also hide the name of the denomination to which they belong or their doctrine by simply calling themselves a “fellowship” or “community church”. They prefer to show young beautiful happy people on their website rather than show their doctrine.
But, doctrine is simply teachings. Therefore, doctrine cannot be avoided unless a preacher or teacher just quotes Scripture without making any summary or other comment which just does not happen.
So, doctrine can not be avoided. We can only have false doctrine or true doctrine.
True doctrine accurately summarizes Scripture. False doctrine does not accurately summarize Scripture.
Singular Pastor or Singular Doctrine in a Creed?
Every pastor claims his sermons are Bible-based and Christ-centered. A singular pastor does not get a pass from being judged by Scripture just because he claims his sermons are Bible-based and Christ-centered. As shown above, every pastor does not only present Scripture, but he is also presenting his own teaching a/k/a doctrine.
In fact, one should be even more careful about the sermon of a singular pastor who claims his sermons are Bible-based and Christ-centered. By making such a claim, he often portrays doctrine as unnecessary, divisive, or worse in order to avoid close comparison of his sermon to what Scripture and creeds do teach. There is no protection of his sermon fitting within the truth of well-accepted doctrine through creeds that have been taught by many pastors and by many churches and by certain denominations throughout history. The singular pastor stands alone by shunning doctrine and creeds and denominations.
Rev. Ronald Hanko, a minister of the Protestant Reformed Churches, in his article “A Plea for Creeds”, states the importance of doctrine and creeds.
Here is a brief quote from the article explaining what happens when a denomination or church dismisses or minimizes the importance of doctrine: ” … by cutting herself off from the church of past, the church today says in effect that every generation must start all over in its searching of the Scriptures and pursuit of the truth. Thus she sets herself an impossible task – a task that is either set aside as too great so that there is little knowledge of the truth in the church, or which leaves her no time for other things.”
‘This is well-stated by the Presbyterian author, G.I. Williamson:
“The Bible contains a great wealth of information. It isn’t easy to master it all – in fact, no one has ever mastered it completely. It would therefore be foolish for us to try to do it on our own, starting from scratch. We would be ignoring all the study of the Word of God that other people have done down through the centuries. That is exactly why we have creeds. They are the product of many centuries of Bible study by a great company of believers. They are a kind of spiritual “road map” of the teaching of the Bible, already worked out and proved by others before us.
He adds:
And right here we see one of the most important things about a creed that is true to the Bible – it remains true down through the ages. It does not need to be changed again and again, with each generation, because it deals with things that are unchanging. Thus, an accurate creed binds the generations together. It reminds us that the church of Jesus Christ is not confined to one age, just as it is not confined to any one place. In other words, there is a unity in what Christians have believed, right down through the ages. Just think of it: when we confess our faith together . . . we join with all those believers who have gone before us. Does not this demonstrate that there is indeed just one Lord and one true faith?”
Conclusion
The Reformed creeds used by Reformed churches are Belgic Confession, Canons of Dordt, and Heidelberg Catechism which the Protestant Reformed Churches denomination labels collectively as the “Three Forms of Unity”, which is a good name consistent with the purpose of unity of creeds. In other words, the people of the Protestant Reformed Churches do not base their unity in a singular pastor, but rather, the people of the Protestant Reformed Churches base their unity on those three Reformed creeds.
With sermons, creeds, and all teaching, we are advised to follow the example set forth in Acts 17:11: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3.
“8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9 Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.
11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.” Psalm 32:8-11.
But, there is hope!
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11.
“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 