Line Upon Line

Continuing his teaching on the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, Pastor Miles shows how Paul corrects the Corinthians' misuse of communion by presenting the pattern Christ Himself established on the night He was betrayed. The Lord's Supper is a divinely instituted memorial of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, to be observed regularly, worthily, and with self-examination.

Paul rebukes the Corinthian church because their gatherings were doing more harm than good — marked by divisions, social-class snobbery, and a corrupted "love feast" that mocked the Lord's Supper. Miles challenges believers to ask whether their gatherings genuinely glorify God and edify the body, or merely serve their own glory, greed, and gluttony.

Pastor Miles teaches from 1 Corinthians 11:2 that the principle of headship—Christ over man, man over woman, God over Christ—runs throughout Scripture, and that submission to God-ordained authority brings redemptive blessing while rebellion against it brings a curse. The head-covering instruction is a Corinthian-specific cultural application of this larger, enduring principle.

Paul's impassioned plea in 1 Corinthians 10:14—"flee from idolatry"—warns the Corinthian church against the danger of compromise, showing that a Christian cannot simultaneously fellowship at the Lord's table and at the table of demons. The teaching distinguishes genuine liberty in Christ from licentiousness, examines what idolatry truly is, and calls believers to live lives that can say to the world, "imitate me as I imitate Christ."

Paul warns the Corinthian church against presumption by recalling Israel's exodus: though all the fathers were redeemed, baptized, and sustained by Christ, most fell in the wilderness because of unbelief and sin. Their failure stands as a written warning that liberty in Christ is freedom from sin, not license to indulge it, and that God is faithful to provide a way to endure every temptation.

Paul, though a free man, made himself a servant to all in order to win souls, adjusting his habits and laying aside his liberties to remove every barrier to the gospel while never compromising God's moral law. The teaching calls believers to embrace soul-winning as their life's purpose, becoming incarnational and missional like Christ, and to practice the self-denial and self-discipline of an athlete training for an incorruptible prize.

Paul, though he had every reasonable right to receive financial support as a minister of the gospel, willingly laid aside that right—and other liberties—for the sake of the gospel and the salvation of others. Following the example of Christ the servant, believers are called to renounce their rights out of love so that others might be won.

Continuing in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul anticipates the question of what liberties he has personally restricted, defending his rights as an apostle—particularly the right to financial support—through a series of rhetorical questions and five supporting reasons, only to demonstrate that he willingly laid that right aside for the sake of the gospel. The lesson: love gives us the freedom to forego even well-founded rights for the good of others.

Teaching on 1 Corinthians 8, Pastor Miles explains how Paul addresses the Corinthian question of meat sacrificed to idols, arguing that knowledge puffs up but love edifies. The believer's liberty in Christ must be willingly laid down for the sake of weaker brothers and the evangelistic and discipleship witness of the church.

A Thanksgiving message centered on Psalm 100 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that challenges believers to make gratitude a dominating lifestyle rather than a single annual holiday. Pastor Miles works through three questions—are we giving thanks, to whom, and for what—then warns of the judgment awaiting the unthankful.