Line Upon Line

As Paul opens the final four-chapter section of 2 Corinthians, he confronts the critics who slandered his character and ministry, doing so not by self-exaltation but by appealing to "the meekness and gentleness of Christ." Pastor Miles traces the painful backstory of Paul's relationship with Corinth and then turns the spotlight on us: true Christlike meekness is power under control, possible only as God works it in us.

Paul shows the Corinthian church how the collection for Jerusalem was handled with complete integrity—received and carried by multiple trusted men of good report, selected by the churches—so that no reproach would fall on the ministry. From this, Pastor Miles draws principles for stewardship and presses believers toward joyful, sacrificial, cheerful giving motivated by God's grace and the promise of eternal reward.

Paul exhorts the Corinthians to complete the giving they began a year earlier, illustrating that giving is a sanctifying work by which God purges greed from the believer's heart. From 2 Corinthians 8:10-15, Miles teaches that God honors willing desire, calls us to finish good intentions in action, and establishes a biblical model of equality in which all gather, all share, and none lack.

Continuing through 2 Corinthians 8, Pastor Miles teaches that New Testament giving is wholly a giving of grace—never a mandate, tax, or means to receive—and that Paul's audacious comparison between the Macedonian and Corinthian churches reveals giving to be a threefold test: of our love, of our faith, and of God's faithfulness. The supreme example and motivation is Jesus Christ, who though rich became poor so that we might be made eternally rich.

Pastor Miles introduces the giving section of 2 Corinthians 8–9 by examining the example of the Macedonian churches, who gave generously despite poverty and affliction. He explains the relationship between Old Testament tithing and New Testament gracious giving, then walks through thirteen principles of giving exemplified by the Macedonians.

An extended preface to 2 Corinthians 8–9, this teaching frames the offering Paul collected for the poverty-stricken church in Jerusalem, exposing how the topic of money stirs the carnal heart and calling believers to trust God as their ultimate provider. Pastor Miles rejects both prosperity and poverty theology, surveys God's faithful provision in Scripture, and lays out biblical principles of giving as a path to blessing, an acceptable sacrifice, and an expression of God's grace and love.

Drawing on 2 Corinthians 7:8-10 and the painful history between Paul and the Corinthian church, this teaching contrasts godly sorrow, which produces repentance leading to salvation, with worldly sorrow, which is merely grieved at being caught and ends in death. Pastor Miles unpacks seven marks of godly sorrow and shows that both rebuke and discipline, when motivated by compassion, reflect the very heart of God.

This third message in the *Reconcile* series teaches that the fall severed humanity's communion with God and community with one another, and that Christ alone restores what was lost through the cross. Believers, reconciled and made one in Christ, are called to live out that restored oneness before a world that is unknowingly longing for it, becoming ambassadors and ministers of reconciliation.

Continuing the "Reconcile" series, Pastor Miles teaches that all sinners—including those the church most avoids—are estranged from the Father they long for, and that Christians are called to incarnational ministry: like Jesus, we move into the neighborhood, learn the culture, and bring the lost into connection with God through the cross. Using Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4, he shows that we are ambassadors sent to connect with sinners, not to separate ourselves from them.

Deviating from 2 Corinthians for a three-part mini-series called "Reconcile," Pastor Miles addresses how the church should engage the cultural debate over marriage, arguing that since marriage is a God-ordained religious institution the state should grant civil unions only, while Christians remain ambassadors of Christ called to bring all sinners—including the LGBT community—into reconciliation with God through the cross.