Line Upon Line

Paul corrects the Corinthian church's misapplication of his teaching on Christian liberty ("all things are lawful"), showing that genuine freedom in Christ does not license sexual immorality. Because believers are members of Christ and their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price, they are called to flee fornication and glorify God in body and spirit.

Pastor Miles teaches Isaiah 52 and the suffering-servant prophecy that begins in 52:13 and runs through chapter 53, showing how God calls his sinful people out of self-inflicted captivity into a costly-yet-free redemption secured by the Messiah. The teaching unfolds the public glory of God's salvation and the believer's call to carry the beautiful gospel of peace to the world.

Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for taking trivial disputes between believers before secular courts, damaging the church's unity and witness. Pastor Miles teaches that, since Christians will one day judge the world and angels, we should be able to settle such matters internally through righteous, meek, forgiving, biblical judgment—even if it means accepting wrong.

Studying Isaiah 50 and 51, Pastor Miles shows that Judah's suffering was not God forgetting or unjustly divorcing them, but the harvest of their own sin—God remained near and able to save. The latter half of the passage turns prophetically to the Messiah, the suffering servant given the tongue of the learned and an obedient ear, whose example calls believers to trust God, speak gracious words, and turn back to Him in repentance.

Paul confronts the Corinthian church over an incestuous relationship they tolerated—even boasted about—and commands them to remove the unrepentant sinner for his ultimate good and the health of the body. The teaching distinguishes being "in the world but not of it" from sinful toleration, and calls Christians to mourn over sin and exercise loving, restorative church discipline.

Teaching from 1 Corinthians 4:6-21, Pastor Miles addresses the Corinthians' unwarranted exaltation of leaders and their divisions, using Paul's correction to challenge our culture's self-esteem doctrine with the biblical truth that everything we have is a gift received from God.

A verse-by-verse teaching on Isaiah 48–49 showing how Judah's outward worship had become a self-deceived sham deserving judgment, yet God spared them for His own name's sake and the covenant with Abraham. The teaching traces God's prophetic faithfulness and unfolds the Messiah, Jesus, as the true Israel and the light of salvation to the Gentiles.

Paul instructs the Corinthians to regard their leaders rightly—as ministers (under-rowers) of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God—neither idolizing nor denigrating them. The chief requirement for a steward is faithfulness, and because the Lord alone is the impartial judge who will one day expose the hidden motives of the heart, we are to judge nothing before its time.

Continuing his charge against idolatry in Isaiah 46–47, Pastor Miles shows how Israel's false gods (Bel and Nebo) were carried into captivity unable to deliver, while the one true God carries and delivers His people. The teaching contrasts powerless idols with the incomparable God who declares the end from the beginning, calls believers to live with expectancy for God's sovereign work, and warns of the certain judgment coming on Babylon—and on every nation that hardens its heart.

Teaching from 1 Corinthians 3:16 on the truth that believers, individually and corporately, are the temple of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the call to build, keep, and honor that temple rather than defile it with worldly wisdom or division.