1 Corinthians 1:26

1Co 1:26. And hereby it appears that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, &c. — Because he makes use of such weak and mean instruments to bring men to the knowledge of the truth. For ye see — Βλεπετε, behold, consider; your calling — And you will discern how agreeably to these things the divine wisdom hath ordered it; observe especially the state of your fellow-Christians in general, and what method he uses, and what manner of persons he employs, to bring men to the knowledge of, and to obedience to the gospel; that not many wise men after the flesh — In secular matters, and according to the wisdom of this world, or in the account of carnal, worldly men. Not many mighty, &c., are called — Are brought to the knowledge of the truth: or, as the apostle rather means, and as ought to have here been supplied to complete the sense, are employed to call you. Our translators, in supplying the words, are called, “convey a sentiment,” says Macknight, “neither true nor suitable to the apostle’s design. It is not true: for even in Judea, among the chief rulers, many believed on him, Joh 12:42; particularly Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. Other Jews, likewise, of rank and learning were called; such as the nobleman whose sick son Jesus cured, Joh 4:53; and Manaen, Herod’s foster-brother, and Cornelius, and Gamaliel; and that great company of priests mentioned Act 6:7, who were obedient to the faith. At Ephesus many who used the arts of magic and divination were called, and who were men of learning, as appears from the number and value of their books, which they burned after embracing the gospel, Act 19:19. And in such numerous churches as those of Antioch, Thessalonica, Corinth, and Rome, it can hardly be doubted that there were disciples in the higher ranks of life. There were brethren even in the emperor’s family, Php 4:22. In short, the precepts in the epistles to masters, to treat their slaves with humanity, and to women, concerning their not adorning themselves with gold and silver, and costly raiment, show that many wealthy persons had embraced the gospel. On the other hand, though it were true, that not many wise men, &c., were called, it did not suit the apostle’s argument to mention it here. For surely God’s not calling many of the wise, &c., joined with his calling the foolish ones of the world to believe, did not put to shame the wise and strong, &c. Whereas, if the discourse be understood of the preachers of the gospel, who were employed to convert the world, all is clear and pertinent. God chose, not the learned and mighty, and the noble ones of this world, to preach the gospel, but illiterate and weak men, and men of low birth: and by making them successful in reforming mankind, he put to shame the legislators, statesmen, and philosophers among the heathen, and the learned scribes and doctors among the Jews, who never had done any thing to the purpose in that matter.”

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE TRUE METHOD OF PREACHING

(Continued)

B. As suited to the character of the called and the ends contemplated

1Co_1:26-31

26For ye [om. ye] see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and [om. yea, and]27 things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29That no flesh should glory in his presence [the presence of God].28 30But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God [om. of God], is [has been] made unto us wisdom, [from God, ἀπὸ θεοῦ]29 and [both] 31righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

[The connection. Kling here, as usual, follows Meyer in considering these verses as confirmatory of what immediately precedes 1Co_1:24. It were better, however, with de Wette and Hodge, to regard the Apostle as introducing here a new argument in support of the general position taken in the previous section. It is an argument drawn from facts directly under their eye. In proof of what he had said of the true method of preaching and the utter vanity of the worldly wisdom they were tempted to prize, they could see for themselves what course the Gospel had in the main actually taken among them who were its converts and what were the ends subserved by this. Accordingly he begins by directing attention to the character of the called, first described negatively].

1Co_1:26. For look at your calling, brethren.—The verb βλέπετε may be taken in the Indicative [as in the E. V.]; but the Imperative corresponds better with the animated style of the Apostle (see 1Co_10:18; Php_3:2). [“And is required by the emphatic position which the verb occupies in the sentence” Alf. So also Words., Wickliffe, Tyndale, and the Rheims version]. Nor is this at all inconsistent, as Bengel asserts, with the use of the “for,” since this is to be found elsewhere also in imperative clauses. [Βλέπειν: “to consider, take to heart, is employed to express a more intent, earnest, spiritual contemplation than ὀρᾶν. The one denotes mental vision, the other bodily sight.” W. Webster]. (Heb_12:3). The “calling” which they are requested to observe is not their secular vocation, or their external circumstances [Olshausen], in which they were found when called of the Lord. Nothing is said of this in the subsequent context. Nor yet can we admit Bengel’s explanation: “the state in which the heavenly calling proves an offence to you.” This anticipates a thought which is not mentioned till afterwards. It is more correct to understand it of the Divine call, both as to the act itself, and the method God pursued in calling them, especially in respect to the persons whom he had chosen and their condition. [This is seen in the very use of terms. “He does not say τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμετέραν, nor τὴν ὑμῶν κλῆσιν but τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν; the calling of you.” Words.]. What this was he proceeds to state—how that not many wise men after the flesh.—The “flesh” here denotes the purely human state or course of action, as utterly devoid of Divine influence or coöperation. It is the sensuous and selfish life, possessed by sin. Hence a wisdom which is suited to this life, which moves according to its ways instead of after the methods of that Divine spiritual principle from which all true higher knowledge springs, is “a wisdom of this age,” “of the world” (1Co_1:20), earthly, godless, and hostile to God. Such is its essential character. Yet without pushing the matter so far, we might simply abide by the idea of what is purely human. (Comp. Herzog’s Theol. Real. Ency. under the word “Fleisch”).30—To attach this qualification to the remaining predicates, would be superfluous. These of themselves indicate what is external, worldly, and belonging to the lower extra-christian life.—not many mighty, δυνατοι: persons of consequence in civil life, influential, powerful, whether it be by wealth or any other means,—not many noble, εὐγενεῖς: of distinguished descent, well-born. In highly-civilized, aristocratic Corinth, all this was regarded of great importance.—are called.—There is no verb in the original with which the above nominatives can agree, and it is best to supply the defect [as in the E. V.] “are called” from the word “calling” in the first clause. Others prefer “are,” and take it either as the sole predicate of the clause: “There are not many wise, etc., among you;” or they unite with it the adjectives as predicates: “Many are not wise, etc.” [Some of the Fathers thought that the persons employed to dispense this calling were here meant. So Theodoret. “God endorsed the nations in the evangelical net of Galilean fishermen.” Also Augustine. “Christ caught orators by fishermen, not fishermen by orators.” Wordsworth]. The supplying of “are called,” suits as well with the preceding words, “your calling,” as with the following, “hath chosen.” “In the early centuries it was often flung at Christianity (by Celsus and others) that its converts were, for the most part, common people, women and slaves.” Paul here not only confesses the fact, but also discovers in it one cause of glory for the Gospel; for it is precisely in this that the Gospel displays itself to be the power of God and the wisdom of God, that starting from such humble beginnings it had nevertheless both outwardly and inwardly overcome the world.

1Co_1:27-28. The positive aspect of the case. But the foolish things of this world.—Luther translates “in the eyes of the world,” as though the Genitive in the original were that of estitmaion. But Paul is here speaking of things not as they seem, but as they are; and here, as well as in the subsequent Epistles, we have the actual quality indicated. “The foolish things” (τὰ μωρά), the neuter for the sake of greater generalization. We have here a strong contrast to “the wise,” i. e. whatever is lacking in higher cultivation and insight, including, too, the additional thought of being deemed foolish, contracted and simple.—hath God chosen, an expression which is repeated three times with great emphasis. It denotes the Divine purpose which is made known in the calling; or that Divine decision in virtue of which a separation is effected among fallen mankind, and certain individuals are selected out of it to become a possession of God in Christ, and are so made blessed (comp. ἐκλέγεσθαι Eph_1:4; Is. 15:19). The expression belongs to the Theocratic language of the Old Testament (comp. בָחַר Deu_14:2 ff.). “Foreknowledge” and “Predestination “are cognate terms, Rom_8:29; 2Ti_1:9, yet so, however, that the word “choose” here designates the free, eternal gracious will of God, as carried out in time, and therefore includes the “calling” in itself.—The object of such a choice is to confound the wise i.e., the wise after the flesh. By the fact that He selected the “foolish,” persons destitute of superior culture, to enjoy holy and blessed communion with Him, the wisdom in which “the wise” boasted, is exposed in all its insufficiency and worthlessness. Or we may say with de Wette, “the wise were put to shame by being compelled to see the foolish obtaining that which was denied to them.” In the latter case, it is implied that “the wise” are conscious of the preference made, “and so were stung to reform” (Osiander). But this is not sustained by the context as the parallel expression “bring to nought” shows. The jubilant contrast proceeds.—and the weak things of this world, i. e. the weak of every kind, bodily, mentally, politically.—God hath chosen to confound the things which are mighty.—The antithesis here is introduced by the neuter: τὰ ίσχυρά, denoting the category in general, although persons are meant. That any thing contemptuous was intended by this use of the neuter, is not probable, since he just before spoke of a kindred class, “the wise,” in the masculine. The “confounding” is seen in the fact that “the weak things,” by virtue of the indwelling “power of God,” evince an energy and an overcoming power which is denied to the strong of this world.—In the third set of contrasts there appears an expansion of thought on the one side, with which there is nothing to correspond on the other.—And the base things of the world, and the despised things hath God chosen—the things which are as good as not, in order that He may bring to nought the things that are.—Here we have the antithesis only to the last expression of the first series: “the things that are” (τὰ ὄντα). [This is readily accounted for, if the omission of the καί as sustained by the best authorities (see critical notes) be correct. In that case the τὰ μὴ ὄντα: the things which are not instead of being an addition to the previous specifications, would stand in opposition with them, as a sort of summary of their meaning, and so be the main word requiring the offset on the other side]. Observe also the order of thought in the specifications, “base things,”—ἀγενῆ: of low origin. To this is added as a natural consequence: “despised things”—τὰ ἐξουθενηένα: regarded as nothing. Then below both, as putting the matter in its strongest possible aspect, there comes the τὰ μὴ ὄντα (to be distinguished from τὰ οὐκ ὅντα inasmuch as the μὴ is not an absolute, but a subjective negative. Winer, § 59, 3): that which in the opinion of men is as good as nonexistent.—In the antithetic τὰ ὄντα, some would insert a τί, making it read: things that are somewhat, of some importance. But this we are as little warranted in doing as in making τὰ μὴ ὄντα=τὰ μηθὲν ὄντα: things which are of no account, are nothing. What Paul here sets in contrast with the former are things which have being, are real, which are regarded as existing, and “which continue to make themselves pass for sole realities.” And for these things the verb “confound” would no longer suit. So we have another “bring to naught:” καταργήσῃ make null, deprive of all validity. This is a much stronger expression, and it puts its object, relatively to the highest good to be enjoyed, out of existence.31 The truth of the assertion has been well brought out by Neander: “In its scorned professors, the Gospel has in fact displayed a power of action and endurance, which far transcends the measure of the natural man. They alone never bowed to the despotism of the Roman Emperor. To them also the Gospel has imparted a steadfastness of conviction, which the proud philosophy of the Greeks never possessed; and a Christian mechanic, as Justin Martyr and Tertullian have affirmed, was able to answer questions which the Greek philosopher asked in vain.”

1Co_1:29. The reason of the above mentioned peculiarity of God’s procedure in “calling” men.—that no flesh should boast in the presence of God.—μῃ καυχήσεται πὰσα σάρξ, lit.: that all flesh should not boast. A Hebraism. The negative belongs to the verb, and=that all flesh should give up their boasting. The sense is: “no man should boast that he, out of his own endeavors, or position, or worth, had contributed any thing to the great achievements of the Gospel.” Neander. It is a question whether we are to take the word “flesh” as simply denoting humanity in general, or are to associate with this the ideas of guilt and transientness which are also conveyed by it. As a general rule the expression occurs in this way only when the one or the other of these ideas is implied in the context. “Flesh beautiful, yet frail” says Bengel.—[“Here then we see that God by confounding the mighty, and the wise, and the great, does not design to elate with pride the weak, the illiterate, and the abject, but brings down all of them together to one level.” Calvin].

1Co_1:30. The ground in the Divine economy on which this end is obtained and the glory of salvation secured to God alone.—But of him ye are in Christ Jesus.—A two-fold construction and exposition is here possible. Either the first five words may be taken as a sentence by itself, stating the fact of their origin in God: “Of him are ye.” The subsequent words, “in Christ Jesus,” would then assert the ground of their being from God—of their Divine Sonship, and this too in such a manner as to carry the emphasis. Such a construction is supported by the fact that the important relative clause which follows is joined directly to it. Or the words “ye are in Christ Jesus” may be taken together as denoting their being in fellowship with Christ, and then “of Him” assigns the cause of this fact,—shows how they came to be in Christ. The latter construction is not contrary to usage, and at least is not more forced than to suppose the word “are” to be employed as a pregnant construction for ‘have sprung’ or ‘been born,’ as Osiander does. We might compare with this Eph_2:8, “And that,” to wit, being saved, “not of yourselves,” which is the same as ‘and ye are not saved of yourselves,’—stated in the positive form, ‘ye are saved of God,’ i. e. He is the author of your salvation. So here: He is the author of your being in Christ Jesus. This is sustained also by the “from God” (ἀ πὸ θεοῦ) in the relative clause which evidently refers back to “of Him” (ἐξ αὐτοῦτοῦ) and imparts to the thought additional emphasis32 by repetition. In relation to the truth conveyed see Joh_6:44; Joh_6:37; Joh_6:65. The preference accordingly is to be given to the second construction. In this way, on the one hand, we preserve the Pauline expression “to be in Christ,” and avoid one which never elsewhere occurs—ἐκ θεοῦ εἶναι: “to be from God.” By this explanation we would be compelled to refer ἐν κυρίῳ: “in the Lord” (1Co_1:31), to God and not to Christ, contrary to Pauline usage. But this need present no difficulty, singe these words in 1Co_1:31 are not Paul’s, but a citation from the Old Testament.—Who was made wisdom unto us from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.33—Here we have the rich treasure of blessings contained for us in Christ all laid open, revealing the largeness of our indebtedness to God, for what of real worth we have and are. “From God” is not to be connected with “wisdom” as indicating the source whence it came, but with “was made” as showing the author of the act. (ἐγενήθη, a later Doric form for ἐγένετο, not passive). This is the order of thought presented in the German [as well as in the English] version. The fact that Christ has been made to us “wisdom” depends on God; and not only “wisdom,” but also the other particulars specified. Observe, too, he here passes over into the first person plural, “unto us,” including therein himself as he frequently does elsewhere when specially moved by a sense of his fellowship with his readers in the salvation of Christ. The position of “wisdom,” coming in as it does before the words “unto us from God,” and thus separated from the remaining predicates, is not to be explained on the ground that “wisdom” is the leading thought to which the others are subordinated. Such a construction is neither called for by the τε καί, which only serves to connect “righteousness” and “sanctification” a little more closely, nor by the nature of the conceptions expressed by the other terms, which designate rather coördinate aspects of the one great scheme of salvation entirely distinct from wisdom, and therefore not capable of being included under it. Rather we may say that in consequence of the course of thought thus far pursued, the idea of “wisdom” pressed foremost upon his mind, and so came in where it did; or that he put the qualifying word common to the several members of the sentence right in among them as a word of connection (Osiander.) It is natural to look for some antithesis to what precedes in these four specifications, “wisdom,” etc. But it can only be called a mistake in Bengel when he attempts to find a contrast, as in “wisdom” to “the foolish things;” so also in “righteousness” to “the weak things,” in “sanctification” to “the base things,” and in “redemption” to “the despised things.”34—When it is affirmed that “Christ was made to us wisdom,” by this we are to understand that in Him, in His person, the fulness of which was unfolded in His history, the mystery of the Divine plan of salvation has been disclosed, and with this an insight been afforded us into the dispensations and judgments of God, and we are enabled to recognize and lay hold upon that which shall conduct us to the goal of our noblest longings (comp. 1Co_2:7 ff.; Col_1:9 ff.; Col_1:26 ff.; Col_3:2; Col_3:10; Php_1:9 ff.; Eph_5:8 ff. etc.). As closely related ideas, “righeousness” and “sanctification” are so joined as to form a distinct whole: δικαιοσύνη τε καὶ ἁγιασμός. The first reminds us of 2Co_5:21—“that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;” and of Jer_23:5—“The Lord our righteousness;” and also of the saying of Christ himself in Mat_3:15, as well as of Act_13:38; Isa_53:11; Gal_2:16-17; Rom_1:17; Rom_3:21 ff. In the language of Holy Writ righteousness denotes that conduct which comports with the law of God or the disposition suitable to it. This existed in Christ in absolute perfection; and it existed in Him as the second Adam (1Co_15:4; 1Co_15:7), the son of man, the head representing the whole body, and in behalf of the entire sinful race, whose obligations to the law He had fulfilled by a life of perfect obedience, and whose debt to justice He has cancelled by submiting to the penalty threatened upon sin in a voluntary sacrifice of Himself even unto death, thereby complying with the behests of the Father and revealing His holy and compassionate love towards the fallen. In this way has He become righteousness for us, that we may be counted righteous before God and enter into the possession of the rights and privileges which belong to this state of righteousness—that is, be adopted into the Divine family. This, regarded as an act of God, is expressed by the terms δικαιοῦν δικαίωσις: to justify, justification; and the pardon of sin, as the negative side of justification, includes also, for its corresponding positive side, God’s cordial acceptance of us as pleasing in His sight. But in this judicial portion of Christ’s redeeming work there lies also, at the same time, an element of moral change—of sanctification (ἁγιαςμός), and the intimate connection between these two things is expressed by the τε καί. (“In this conjunction there is implied at once distinction and equality, an intimation of similarity, as though the one were consequent upon the other.” Osiander. In order that the relation to God, in which our justification places us, may be subjectively sustained, so that we may say “the judgment of God is according to truth,” there must be an inward connection between the Head and the members who participated in the righteousness of their Head. This connection is effected by the love of Christ awakening faith in us. This love at once destroys in the subject of it all disposition to live for himself, as the moving spring of his existence, all ambitious aspiring, and transports him into a state of mind that leads him to live and to become every thing in Christ alone. And this is faith, humble, earnest faith, that works in us repentance as its result. In this emancipation of the individual from the thraldom of selfishness (an emancipation which is at the same time a deliverance from every thing to which selfishness binds us, even the idols of flesh and sense, and the world), and in this union to Christ as the sole worthy and worth-giving Saviour, lies the germ of our “sanctification.” By this we understand becoming godly-minded—the consecration of our whole life in all its elements unto God—the offering up of self unto the Most High, so that all labor becomes a Divine service, the springs of which are joy in the Lord and the witness of the Spirit to our adoption and final salvation. This ἁγιασμόζ: holiness, may be regarded either as progressive—sanctification, or as a fixed quality—sanctity. The latter is the prevailing usage in the New Testament (Rom_6:19-22; 1Th_4:3-4; 1Th_4:7; 1Ti_2:15; Heb_12:14 etc.). It is to be so taken here. In reference to the thing itself see Joh_17:19, and the juxtaposition of “ye are justified” and “ye are sanctified” in 1Co_6:11. But while all are agreed as to the meaning of these foregoing terms as a whole, it is not so in regard to the last one, “and redemption” (ἀπολύτρωσις). Are we (with Meyer) to take this as denoting the work of Christ through which our salvation is achieved (as in Rom_3:24; Eph_1:7), so that it is for us an object of faith? or (according to the Catholic expositors) as our final deliverance from death and all the evils and temptations of sin (as in Rom_8:23; Eph_1:14), and so as an object of hope? The latter interpretation corresponds better with the position of the word, since it will hardly do, after having mentioned “righteousness and sanctification,” to go back again to the negative idea of deliverance from guilt, which is already involved in the term righteousness. On the other hand, its position renders the addition of any explanatory term like that found in Rom_8:23; Eph_1:14; Eph_4:30, unnecessary. Comp. for a fuller development of the thought Rom_8:10-11; Rom_8:21-24.—Here then is the final stage of our salvation a deliverance from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God. That in this, as well as in the foregoing instances, Christ exhibits himself as the “power of God” victorious over the power of sin and its terrible consequence, death, is a proximate thought, so that here again those two chief predicates, “wisdom and power,” recur to view, only the second with greater prominence. But in the case of “sanctification,” as well as of “redemption,” it is implied that Christ is in Himself what He has become for us; that He in all His life and walk was entirely severed from all fellowship with sin and wholly consecrated to God, i.e. holy, and as such was the principle of our sanctification; that He arose victorious from the grave and the whole realm of sin, and at once ascended up on high, exalted over all, and as such carries in Himself the power by which our redemption is to be achieved. (Comp. 1Co_15:26; 1Co_15:55; Eph_2:6).

1Co_1:31. The final cause of the peculiar method of God’s call and the plan of His salvation by the free gift of an all-sufficient Saviour.—In order that, according as it is written, he that boasteth, in the Lord let him boast.—Here is where the argument conducts us. There must be a boasting, a glorying; not, however, in oneself before God, but in God as the author of all our advantages and blessings. And this boasting is the expression of a lofty emotion of joy and confidence. If by the term “Lord” Christ were meant, it should be explained as an exultation in His fellowship, in possessing a share in His salvation. But the relation to 1Co_1:29 points rather to God, the original source of all salvation. And such an application would not militate against Paul’s usage, because, as has already been remarked, the passage is a citation from the Old Testament (Jer_9:23), particular prominence being given to the chief thought by holding fast to the original form. Hence the anacoluthon, ἵνα—καυχάθω, instead of καυχᾶται. If anything were to be supplied it would be γένηται. For a similar case see Rom_15:3.

DOGMATICAL AND ETHICAL

1. God’s thoughts and ways entirely unlike those of the natural man.—What is great and glorious in the sight of men, God sets at naught. What men slight as mean and contemptible, God prizes, or makes it precious. Man’s propensity is to exalt himself, and hold in honor whatever is the product of his own powers and bears the mark of mental or physical superiority, or can be used to personal advantage, or is of noble origin, while he treats all that is crude and powerless and vulgar, just as if it had no existence. God, on the other hand, in His work of redeeming vain man, especially at its very commencement, proceeds on methods quite the reverse. Here we see the Son of the Highest, who is in the form of God, the Fulness of Divine life and wisdom and power, and, as the perfect image of the Father, is infinitely exalted above the most eminent of created beings, yea, is the very substance and vital principle of all the excellence and power which these beings possess—we see Him emptying Himself of His glory, entering into a state of creaturely dependence, assuming the form of a servant, coming into association with a sinful race although Himself sinless, bearing in holy sympathy all their burdens and trials on His own heart, and sharing in their condemnation and suffering and death, even to the ignominious death of the cross. Thus, at the very start, did Divine Power and Wisdom and Holiness exhibit themselves as weakness, foolishness and sin; Life and Light, as death and darkness; Riches inexhaustible, as deepest poverty; the All in All, as nothing; Essential Being, as not being. Thus in His fundamental act did God confront and confound the vain conceit of men who aspired to resemble Him in power, wisdom and blessedness. And this initial procedure has shaped the whole method of salvation ordained in the Gospel. As the condition of pardon and acceptance God requires of men the absolute renunciation of their own wisdom, power and sufficiency, and a disposition to ascribe all honor and glory unto God, who has thus manifested Himself to them in Christ, and to regard His workmanship in them as alone possessing worth. But since this requirement is exceedingly difficult for such as have distinction in this world, it happens that among the saved there are found not many wise, mighty and noble; but the Divine calling proves effectual rather in the sphere of the rude, the weak, the ignoble and the lowly, inasmuch as it is among these that the disposition to accept salvation exists in the highest degree or is most readily awakened. Thus it cometh to pass that while the wise and the noble and the mighty of earth are passed by and deemed unfit for heavenly honors, the foolish are lifted up into the light of Divine wisdom, the weak are clothed with Divine power, the ignoble are invested with the highest nobility, those who are as if they were not, attain consideration as the only real personages, and by the contrast the pomp and pride of earth are put to shame. The reason of this is that there may be no boasting before God. To this there is the opposite.

2. Unto God the Lord be all glory—He is the author of all benefits which come to us through Christ, and as He is the author so is He their final cause. Of Him and to Him are all things.

And these benefits appertain to all the aspects and relations of man’s being and life as connected with God and His kingdom, viz. the intellectual, the legal, the moral and the physical. First, Wisdom. This in its highest form is the knowledge of God, and such a knowledge we have imparted in the revelation of His Gospel—a knowledge of His character, His works and ways, of the economy of His kingdom in its preparation, establishment, spread and final consummation, by means of which the thoughtful spirit may be led to choose the way of life, and to advance from the first appropriation of salvation in faith on to its full fruition in glory. Of this wisdom Christ is made to us the substance and the illuminating principle. The second is Righteousness, i. e., restoration of fellowship with God by the satisfaction of all the law’s demand, and the cancelling of all obligations incurred, so that the sinner can on this ground, be accounted righteous in the sight of God, and be reinstated in his forfeited rights, and have free access to the Father as one of His family. This righteousness Christ has been made unto us by His having fulfilled all the claims of the law, both in doing and in suffering, both by yielding a perfect obedience and by assuming the curse out of His free, infinite love, so that we, being found in Him, may be made partakers of His merits. The third, inseparably connected with the preceding, is the Sanctification of human life in all its inward and outward movements so far as they are determined by man’s own will. This is effected by the shedding abroad of the love of God in the heart through the indwelling Spirit, who, consequent upon the work of Christ, comes to appropriate to us His righteousness and to assure us of his pardoning grace. And when, notwithstanding all past sins, we become thoroughly conscious of this love to us, there is awakened in our souls a love in return which shows itself in perfect confidence and in entire devotion to God, and in the utter renunciation of all selfish and worldly affections. And this is holiness. But this holiness perfects itself gradually, in the daily exercise of repentance and faith, and love more and more takes possession of the whole life to the complete regulation of all our faculties and relations, so far as they can be determined by it. And this Christ is made, unto us by virtue of His holiness passing over into our hearts through the Holy Ghost, whom He hath given unto us, and who transforms us into a likeness to His all-perfect character. Finally, Redemption.—This is the destruction of all our enemies, even to the last, which is death, so that not only is the spirit life because of righteousness, but God, who hath raised from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, will quicken our mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwelleth in us. Thus is man, in respect to his entire organism, delivered from the bondage of corruption, and introduced into the glorious liberty of the children of God. And all this is done through the power and after the type of Christ, who, Himself victor over death, has become the principle of life eternal for all who believe in Him. As they die with Him, so also will they reign with Him. In this that profound saying is fulfilled, that corporeity is the end of the ways of God; in other words, that the deliverance of our whole organization from the ban of death, and our introduction into the fulness and power of an indestructible life is the consummation of God’s work of restoring fallen man; a work which was begun in his deliverance from the Condemnation of sin. Short and good, Olearius: Christus est sapientia in verbo, quoad doctrinam, justibia in merito, quoad fidem; sanctificatio in spiritu, quoad vitam; redemptio in novissimo adventu, quoad salutem æternam.

3. [The efficiency of faith in the matter of salvation.—This consists not in any virtue or meritoriousness of the act itself but in the fulness of blessings contained in the Being whom it appropriates or to whom it unites us. It enlightens because it lets in the light of Christ’s wisdom; it justifies because it appropriates the righteousness of Christ; it sanctifies because it puts us into fellowship with Christ’s holy life, and it proves our victory over death and the grave by associating us with Him who, as the Captain of our salvation, has proved himself the mighty conqueror. Thus while the wisdom and the power of this world are limited by the weakness and imperfection of human faculties, faith proves its superiority over both by taking to itself the fulness of Him who filleth all in all.]

4. [Christ cannot be divided in the benefits accruing from Him. We cannot have Him for our wisdom or for our righteousness without at the same time having Him for our sanctification and our redemption. The lack of any one of these benefits proves the absence of them all.—Christ is a perfect whole, and His work a perfect whole, and to be accepted at all He must be accepted as a whole.]

5. [The surpassing excellence of God’s method of salvation is seen in the fact that he presents to us not a dead system of doctrines nor lifeless instrumentalities to be acquired and improved by us, but a living agency, a person, infinite, ever-present, ever-active, all-wise, all-powerful, all-good, who acts upon us while we act on Him, and saves us by an efficiency of his own.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

1. [The method of preaching the Gospel must be adapted to the nature of the Divine calling.—1. As to the subjects thereof. The preaching should be of such a kind, and be set forth in such a manner, as to reach the poor, the illiterate and the weak. One sign that the kingdom of God has come is that the poor have the Gospel preached unto them. As it was in the beginning so must it still be. God’s calling has not changed its nature. But in thus suiting the Gospel to the humble, we are not to set aside the noble and learned as though excluded from salvation. At the manger in Bethlehem the worship of the shepherds was followed by the worship of the wise men from the East; among the disciples there was a Joseph of Arimathea; the vacancy in the Apostleship made by the fall of Judas was filled by a Paul; among the converts at Corinth, was Erastus the chamberlain and the wealthy Gaius. 2. As to the ends it has in view, viz: the humbling of man’s pride and the promoting of God’s glory.—The aim at such an end must be seen in the style and manner of the preacher himself and in the effects which he seeks to produce. 3. As to its contents.—This must be Christ in all His fulness and in His manifold adaptations to the wants of the sinner; Christ Himself, not a system of doctrines, nor a code of precepts, but the living person.]

2. The reason why not many wise are called. 1. Not because God puts contempt on human wisdom, on rank or fortune, or upon man’s natural faculties and powers, for these are His gifts and were designed for good, 2, but on account of men’s guilt. They abuse these gifts into an occasion for withdrawing themselves from the grace of God, and setting up for themselves to the darkening of their own understandings and the ruin of all their own interests through their weakness and insufficiency. Spener in Starke.

3. Three classes of persons, the wise, the strong and the noble, are the special foes of God’s kingdom, partly because they think that God’s grace detracts from their power and consequence, and partly because they imagine themselves to be already in a blessed condition (Joh_9:39-41). Starke.

4. The fact that a majority of its professors at first were of humble rank redounds to the honor of Christianity. From this it is seen: 1. That it esteems all men alike. 2. That it owes its rise and spread not to human might and art, but to God. 3. That it requires not learning but an honest heart that is anxious for its own salvation.—A miserable hull often conceals a precious kernel. Heubner.

5. The obligations which spring from these truths.—The poor and needy owe Christianity their profoundest gratitude for being so honored by it. [At the same time they must be careful not to arrogate any superiority in the sight of God over those who are above them in learning or birth or ability. Pride in ignorance and meanness is no less abominable in the sight of God than pride in greatness, wealth and learning.] On the contrary, the rich and the noble have occasion to humble themselves. Christianity owes them nothing, and they should be mindful of the danger of being beguiled from it.

6. The proud and self-sufficient must be humbled.—The Saviour did not become the Son of David until the princely glory of David’s house had departed and his descendants had come to the saw-horse. This was to show that the loftiness of this world must be brought low, if it would enter the kingdom of God. [The heights of earthly promotion and glory lift us no whit nearer Heaven.—It is easier to step there from the lowly vale of humiliation and sorrow.] God’s kingdom is a cross-kingdom. Gossner.

7. Cheer for the lowly.—What the world rejects that God lifts up and transforms into a sanctuary. Art thou small and despicable in the sight of men, rejoice at it and consider that God looks down especially upon thee (Psa_113:6-8; Psa_138:6).

8. Instruction for the high.—To God belongs all the glory. If then God is to display his power in thee and make something out of thee, thou must consent to become as nothing. Everything in Christianity turns upon this one quality of humility. The blessedness of the children of God is that they possess nothing, the glory of which does not belong to God.

9. What incomparable riches in Christ!—Believest thou in Him? Then thou possessest Him. Let earth’s trifles pass. Thou hast Christ, and with Him thou hast all things.—He is thine in all his offices.—As a Prophet, he is our wisdom; as High-Priest, he is our righteousness; as King, he is our sanctification; and in all three offices, he is our complete redemption. Hedieger.

10. J. Spencer. 1Co_1:21. The superiority of Christianity over human science, on the subject of religion. I. Demonstrated as to a. a future state; b. Human duty; c. The character of God; d. The pardon of the sinners. II. Application; a. Guard against a so-called philosophical style of reasoning; b. Cling to the great distinctive doctrines of the Gospel; c. Prize the pure Gospel; d. Heedlessness of sinners, strange. J. Barrow. 1Co_1:23. The doctrine of the Gospel—the doctrine of the cross. 1. As a suffering—in appearance criminal. 2. As most bitter and painful. 3. As most ignominious and shameful. 4. As agreeable and advantageous to the intents of the passion. 5. As completory of ancient significations and predictions. 6. As apt to excite devotion, and enforce the practice of duty. H. Bushnell. 1Co_1:23. The power of God in self-sacrifice. I. God is morally passible; a part of His glory is to be compassionate. II. This compassion exhibited in Christ’s passion on the cross. III. The power of it as seen in the effect it has to subdue enmity. It conquers evil by enduring evil.—C. H. Spurgeon. 1Co_1:23-24. Christ crucified. I. The Gospel rejected. II. The Gospel accepted. III. The Gospel admired. Anonymous. 1Co_1:26-29. The Christian calling. I. Its nature; a. Not many mighty, wise and noble; but b. The foolish, the weak, the base, are called. II. The reason: a. Not that God is unwilling that the great, and wise, and noble should be saved; but b. Because the foolish, the weak, the base, are more ready to feel their need and accept grace; and c. that the glory of God may be the more signalized. III. In its bearings; a. Shows us the perilous position of the mighty, and noble, and wise; they are in danger of being passed by and confounded; b. Teaches us not to disparage the foolish, the weak and the base; c. The foolish, the weak and the base are not to be proud against the opposite class, as though any better in God’s sight; d. The true preparation for God’s kingdom is an entire emptying of self; e. The purport of the calling, the glory of God.—Jon. Edwards. 1Co_1:29-31. God glorified in man’s dependence. I. This dependence absolute and universal; a. As they have all their good of God; a. of his grace; ß. of his power; b. As they have all through God; c. As they have all in God both their objective good and their subjective good. II. God is glorified in it. a. In that it affords greater occasion and obligation to take notice of and acknowledge God’s perfections and all-sufficiency; b. In that it is hereby demonstrated how great God’s glory is as compared with the creature’s. III. Use of the doctrine; a. It shows us God’s marvellous wisdom in the work of redemption; b. Those systems of doctrine, that are opposed to this absolute and universal dependence on God, do derogate from God’s glory, and so thwart the design of the contrivance for our redemption; c. We learn the efficiency of faith; d. Our duty is to exalt God above, and ascribe to Him all the glory of redemption. A. Butler, 1Co_1:30. Christ the source of all blessings.

Footnotes:

[27]1Co_1:28.—The καὶ before τὰ μὴ ὄντα is not original. [“A mistaken supplement of the sense.”—Alf.]

[28]1Co_1:29.—Instead of the rec. αὐτοῦ the best authorities read τοῦ θεοῦ which is repeated by way of emphasis.

[29]1Co_1:30.—The best attested order of words is σοφία ἡμῖν ἀπὸ θεοῦ. That in the Rec. ἡμῖν σοφία is to be explained from the tendency to take σοφία ἀπὸ θεου together in relation (Meyer). [See below].

[30][See also for a masterly analysis of the Ethical import of this word. Müller on Sin. 2 Book, 2 Chap. Also Sartorius, “Von der heiligen Liebe.”]

[31]Whitby discovers an allusion in the above designations to the Jews and Gentiles. His observations are valuable. “The Jews looked upon themselves as the only ἐυγενεῖς, persons of true nobility, as being of the stock of Abraham. ‘Even the poorest Israelite,’ saith R. Akibah, ‘is to be looked upon as a gentleman, as being the son of Abraham, &c.;’ but the Gentiles they horribly despised, as the base people of the earth, not fit to be conversed with, they being styled in their law, οὐκἔδνος: not a nation; λαὸς ὁ τεχθήσομενος, a people that shall be born, Psa_22:31; ὁ κτιζόμενος, that should be created in the generation to come, Psa_102:19, and so yet had no being, Deu_31:21. οὑ λαὸς, not a people, Hos_1:10; and it being said by the prophet, that all the Heathens are as nothing, and were accounted as nothing. Isa_40:17, they still account them as such. Hence, Mordecai prays, Lord, give not thy sceptre τοῖς μὴ οὖσι, to them that are not, Est_4:11; and Esdras. As for the people which also came of Adam, thou hast said they are nothing. And now, O Lord, these Heathens who have ever been reputed as nothing, have begun to be lords over us. 2Es_6:56-57. Thus Abraham is said to be the father of the Gentiles, before that God who calleth things which are not as if they were, Rom_4:17 : and Clemens Rom. saith of the Gentiles, “He called us who were not, and would that of no being we should have a being.” So filthy are the Gentiles represented here by things that are not, things base, things accounted as nothing. See also 1Co_6:4. And this is the ancient exposition of Origen, who, speaking of the rejection of the Jews, or the calling of the Gentiles, and God’s provoking the Jews to jealousy by them that were not a nation, he confirms this from these words: “God hath chosen the base things of the world, and things which are not, that he might abolish the things which were before, that Israel, according to the flesh, might glory before God.” Philœal c.p. 3. Now, however much we may feel constrained to take these designations in question in their more natural and broader acceptation as above, it is very evident that they were derived from the Theocratic usus loquendi.]

[32]A question might then arise: why ἐξ was not repeated and instead we have ἀπὸ. See below].

[33]We have here given the exact order of the Greek in order to render the exposition more intelligible.]

[34]We here insert the arguments in favor of the interpretation which Kling has simply set aside without refuting, and which seems worthy of consideration as best fitted to dispose of some of the difficulties under which his view labors—and also as fraught with valuable suggestions. This other interpretation has in its favor, that it takes in the thought as it flows upon the mind in the order of the words, “who is made unto us a wisdom from God—both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” In a collocation of words so peculiar, it were natural to take the last three terms as an after thought exegetical of the main one—and such an addition was needed. Wisdom was what Paul had been disparaging throughout this section. But it was the wisdom of man. Now he glories in Christ as having been made unto us wisdom. It was necessary therefore to difference this from what he had been condemning. So he adds ἀπό θεοῦ—not ἐξ, as in the previous clause where he wishes to express the cause of an act; but ἀπό: from, denoting derivation, showing whence this wisdom came. It is no objection to this that the article τή is not mentioned before ἀπό, since the omission is quite in Paul’s style. Eph_3:13. (See Alf.: also 15). Then to characterize this wisdom, to exhibit its distinguishing peculiarities as practical and suited for man’s deepest deeds, instead of being merely speculative, he subjoins the three great points it contemplated. And here is where wisdom of the Gospel far surpasses that of secular philosophy. It gives him in Christ pardon, holiness, triumphant deliverance from woe to glory. Here then we find 1, an adequate reason for the order of the words; 2, not a repetition but a distinct thought in ἀπὸ θεοῦ, and so a reason for the change of preposition: 3, not a digression from the main course of thought as must be supposed in the other interpretation, which Stanley admits, but a glorious consummation of it, displaying the infinite superiority of the wisdom from God over all human Wisdom 4, an epexegesis quite in the manner of Paul. Rom_1:12. Since writing the above I see that the view above given is adopted, though not argued out, by Butler in his sermons on our text. It is substantiated also by the Syriac, Vul., and Rheims versions. Neander’s testimony may be added: “In these last three conceptions (righteousness, sanctification and redemption), there are presented to us the practical contents of the wisdom (from God), by which it is distinguished from the wisdom of to is world.”]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:26 Socially and culturally, most Corinthian Christians were ordinary people; few were among the elite (cp. Matt 11:25). Only a few Christians, such as Erastus, the city treasurer in Corinth (see Rom 16:23), were wealthy (or high born; cp. Jas 2:5).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 1:26. Βλέπετε) ye see. For shows it to be the indicative mood.—τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν, your calling) the state, in which the heavenly calling proves an offence to you; so, calling, 1Co 7:20.—οὐ πολλοὶ, not many) Therefore, however, some supply, have been called. As a comparison has been made with the preachers, so also with the hearers of the Gospel. The ellipse contains a euphemism [end.[13]]—κατὰ σάρκα, according to the flesh) a phrase nearly related to the expression, of the world, which presently after occurs in 1Co 1:27. The world judges according to the flesh.—εὐγενεῖς, noble) who are generally also wise and powerful. [Can it be believed, that this is the distinctive characteristic of the society of those, who, in our vernacular tongue (German) are styled Freymaurer, Freemasons.—V. g.]

[13] Σοφοὶ, wise) Hence such a small number of men were gained at Athens, which was the seat of Grecian wisdom.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_1:26. Confirmation of this general proposition from the experience of the readers. The element of proof lies in the contrast, 1Co_1:27 f. For if the matter were not as stated in 1Co_1:25, then God would not have chosen the foolish of the world to put to shame its wise ones. By so doing He has, indeed, set before your eyes the practical experimental proof, that the μωρὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ transcends men in wisdom. Otherwise He would have acted in the reverse way, and have sought out for Himself the wise of the world, in order, through their wisdom, to help that which now appears as the μωρὸν τ. Θεοῦ to victory over the foolishness of the world. This holds, too, as against de Wette, who (comp also Hofmann) makes ΓΆΡ refer to the whole series of thoughts, 1Co_1:19-25, notwithstanding that the expressions here used attach themselves so distinctly to 1Co_1:25.

ΒΛΈΠΕΤΕ] imperative. As such it has with logical correctness its hortatory emphasis;[264] but not so, if we take it as indicative (Valla, Erasmus, Castalio, Beza, Vatablus, Bengel, Rosenmüller, and Schrader).

τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν] is not to be taken arbitrarily, with Beza, Estius, Mosheim, Semler, Rosenmüller, and Pott, pro concreto, for ὑμᾶς τοὺς κλητούς, but as: your calling (to salvation through the Messiah); see, what was the nature of it as regards the persons whom God, the caller, had chosen (1Co_1:27 ff.). Krause and Olshausen run counter to the specific Christian sense of the word, and even to the general linguistic usage (see on 1Co_7:20), when they make it mean, like the German word Beruf [calling], the vitae genus, the outward circumstances.

ὅτι] equivalent to ΕἸς ἘΚΕῖΝΟ, ὍΤΙ, in so far, namely, as. Plat. Prot. p. 330 E, Crat. p. 384 C, al[265] Joh_2:18; Joh_9:17; Joh_11:51; 2Co_1:18; 2Co_11:10; Mar_16:14; Fritzsche, a[266] Matth. p. 248 f.

Οὐ ΠΟΛΛΟῚ ΣΟΦΟῚ Κ. Σ.] that not many (among you) are wise in the eyes of men, etc. It is enough to supply the simple εἰσί, making Οὐ ΠΟΛΛ., i.e. but few, the subject, and σοφ. the predicate; and there is no need for introducing an ἘΚΛΉΘΗΣΑΝ (so commonly), according to which οὐ π. σ. together would be the subject. ΚΑΤᾺ ΣΆΡΚΑ, specifying the kind and manner of the ΣΟΦΊΑ, marks it out as purely human, and distinguishes it from the Christian wisdom which proceeds from the Holy Spirit. For σάρξ comprises the simply human element in man as opposed to the divine principle. Comp ΣΟΦΊΑ ΣΑΡΚΙΚΉ, 2Co_1:12; ΣΟΦΊΑ ΨΥΧΙΚΉ, Jam_3:15; and see on Rom_4:1; Joh_3:6. Estius aptly remarks: Significari vult sapientiam, quae studio humano absque doctrina Spir. sancti potest acquiri. In substance, the ΣΟΦΊΑ ΤΟῦ ΚΌΣΜΟΥ, 1Co_1:20, and the Σ. ΤΟῦ ΑἸῶΝΟς ΤΟΎΤΟΥ, 1Co_2:6, are the same.

ΔΥΝΑΤΟΊ] We are not to supply ΚΑΤᾺ ΣΆΡΚΑ here again; for that was essentially requisite only with ΣΟΦΟΊ, and Paul otherwise would have coupled it with the third word (comp 1Co_1:20). That mighty men of this world are meant, is self-evident.

εὐγενεῖς] of high descent. Comp Luk_19:12; frequent in the classics.

Rückert objects that Paul, instead of proving the phenomenon recorded in 1Co_1:26 to have proceeded from the divine wisdom, uses it as an argument for 1Co_1:25, and so reasons in a circle. But this is without foundation. For that the phenomenon in question was a work of the divine wisdom, was to the Christian consciousness (and Paul was, of course, writing to Christians, who looked at it in the same light with himself) a thing ascertained and settled, which could be employed therefore directly to establish 1Co_1:25 in conformity with experience.

[264] The γάρ is not against our taking it as imperative; Greek writers, too, use it with that mood, as e.g. Soph. Phil. 1043: ἄφετε γὰρ αὐτόν.

[265] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[266] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 1:26-31 . § 5. THE OBJECTS OF THE GOSPEL CALL. § 4 has shown that the Gospel does not come ἐν σοφίᾳ λόγου (1Co 1:17 b ) by the method of its operation; this will further be evidenced by the status of its recipients . If it were, humanly speaking, a σοφία , it would have addressed itself to σοφοί , and won their adherence; but the case is far otherwise.

1Co 1:26 . Βλέπετε γὰρ τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν , ἀδελφοί , “For look at your calling, brothers”: God has called you into the fellowship of His Son (1Co 1:9 ); if His Gospel had been a grand philosophy, would He have addressed it to fools, weaklings, base-born, like most of you? P.’s experience in this respect resembled his Master’s (Mat 11:25 , Joh 7:47-49 , Act 4:13 ). This argument cuts two ways: it lowers the conceit of the readers ( cf. 1Co 6:9-11 , and the scathing irony of 1Co 4:7-13 ), while it discloses the true mission of the Gospel. On κλῆσιν see the note to κλητοῖς (1Co 1:2 ), also on 1Co 7:20 : it signifies not one’s temporal vocation in the order of Providence, but one’s summons to enter the kingdom of Grace; ὑμῶν is objective gen [241] For τ . κλῆσιν ὅτι , see note on ὅτι , 1Co 1:5 . οὐ πολλοί (thrice repeated) suggests at least a few of each class amongst the readers: see Introd. , p. 730. οὐ πολλοὶ σοφοί : “hinc Athenis numero tam exiguo lucrifacti sunt homines” (Bg [242] ). σοφοὶ is qualified by κατὰ σάρκα (see parls., and cf. σοφία σαρκική , 2Co 1:12 ), in view of the distinction worked out in § 4 between the world’s and God’s wisdom: the contrast implied resembles that between ἡ κατὰ Θεὸν λύπη and ἡ τοῦ κόσμου λύπη in 2Co 7:9 ff. The “wise after the flesh” include not only philosophers (1Co 1:20 ), “but educated men in general, the πεπαιδευμένοι as opposed to the ἰδιῶται . The δυνατοὶ were men of rank and political influence, opp [243] to δῆμος . The εὐγενεῖς meant, in the aristocratic ages of Greece, men of high descent;” but in later degenerate times “men whose ancestors were virtuous and wealthy, the honesti as opposed to the humiliores of the Empire. Few intellectual men, few politicians, few of the better class of free citizens embraced Christianity” (Ed [244] ). In a Roman colony and capital, the εὐγενεῖς would chiefly be men of hereditary citizenship, like P. himself; the δυνατοί , persons associated with Government and in a position to influence affairs; the former word is applied in an ethical sense to the Berœan Jews in Act 17:11 . “That the majority of the first converts from heathenism were either slaves or freedmen, appears from their names” (Lt [245] ); the inscriptions of the Catacombs confirm this. The low social status of the early Christians was the standing reproach of hostile critics, and the boast of Apologists: see the famous passage in Tacitus’ Annals , xv., 44; Justin ., Apol. , ii. 9; Origen, contra Celsum , ii., 79; Minuc. Felix, vii., 12 ( indocti, impoliti, rudes, agrestes ). As time went on and Christianity penetrated the higher ranks of society, these words became less strictly true: see Pliny’s Ep. ad Trajanum , x., 97, and the cases of Flavius Clemens and Domitilla, cousins of the emperor Domitian (Ed [246] ), The ellipsis of predicate to οὐ πολλοί κ . τ . λ . is commonly filled up by understanding ἐκλήθησαν , as implied in κλῆσιν : “not many wise, etc. (were called)”. Mr [247] , Bt [248] , and others, supply εἰσίν , or preferably ἐστέ : “(there are) not many wise, etc. (among you),” or “not many (of you are) wise, etc.”; the omission of ὑμεῖς courteously veils the disparagement.

[241] genitive case.

[242] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[243] opposite, opposition.

[244] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians .

[245] J. B. Lightfoot’s (posthumous) Notes on Epp. of St. Paul (1895).

[246] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians .

[247] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[248] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_1:26

For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble (are called).

The connection is not with the preceding verse but with the whole preceding context. The apostle introduces a new argument in proof of the uselessness of human wisdom. The argument is derived from their religious experience. You see, brethren, it is not the wise who are called.

Your calling (κλῆσις) does not mean mode of life, profession, or station, as the word vocation often does with us. The Greek word is never used in this sense in the New Testament, unless 1Co_7:20 be an exception. It always refers to the call of God by his word and Spirit. It is to be so understood here. You see, brethren, your conversion, that not many wise are converted. In this sense we speak of effectual calling

Wise after the flesh, i.e. wise with human wisdom. Flesh in Scripture often means human nature. There are two kinds of wisdom, the one human, the other divine. There are, therefore, two classes of wise men; those possessing the wisdom which is from men, and those who have the wisdom which comes from God. Few of the former class become Christians; therefore it is not by wisdom that men find out God, which is what the apostle designs to prove.

Not many mighty, i.e. the great; οἱ δυνατοί, those having δύναμις, in the sense of power and authority. The opposite class is designated as the weak or uninfluential, see Act_25:5. Not many noble, i.e. well-born. The converts to Christianity were not in general from the higher ranks in society. The things which elevate man in the world, knowledge, influence, rank, are not the things which lead to God and salvation. As there is no verb in the original to agree with these nominatives, the wise, the mighty, the noble, we may either supply the simple substantive verb are: You see your calling, not many of you are wise, or mighty, or noble; or, we may supply, as in our version, the word called, not many wise are called; or, the word chosen, not many wise are chosen, for God hath chosen, etc. The sense remains the same. Human distinctions are insignificant and inefficacious in the sight of God, who is sovereign in the distribution of grace.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A confirmation taken of those things which came to pass at Corinth, where the Church especially consisted of the basest and common people, insomuch that the philosophers of Greece were driven to shame, when they saw that they could do nothing with their wisdom and eloquence, in comparison of the Apostles, whom notwithstanding they called idiots and unlearned. And herewithall doth he beat down their pride, for God did not prefer them before those noble and wise men because they should be proud, but that they might be constrained even whether they would or not, to rejoice in the Lord, by whose mercy, although they were, the most abject of all, they had obtained in Christ, both this wisdom, and all things necessary to salvation.

After that kind of wisdom which men make account of, as though there were none else: who because they are carnal, know not spiritual wisdom.

What way the Lord hath taken in calling you.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

ye see--rather, from the prominence of the verb in the Greek, "see" or "consider" (imperative) [ALFORD from Vulgate and IRENÆUS].

your calling . . . are called--Instead of the words in italics, supplied by English Version, supply, "were your callers." What Paul is dwelling on (compare Co1 1:27-28) is the weakness of the instrumentality which the Lord employed to convert the world [HINDS and WHATELY; so ANSELM]. However, English Version accords well with Co1 1:24. "The whole history of the expansion of the Church is a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, until the emperor himself laid down his crown before the cross of Christ" [OLSHAUSEN].

wise . . . after the flesh--the wisdom of this world acquired by human study without the Spirit. (Contrast Mat 16:17).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 26. Ye see your calling] την κλησιν. The state of grace and blessedness to which ye are invited. I think, βλεπετε την κλησιν, c., should be read in the imperative: Take heed to, or consider your calling, brethren that (οτι) not many of you are wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble: men is not in the original, and Paul seems to allude to the Corinthian believers in particular. This seems to have been said in opposition to the high and worldly notions of the Jews, who assert that the Divine Spirit never rests upon any man, unless he be wise, powerful, and rich. Now this Divine Spirit did rest upon the Christians at Corinth, and yet these were, in the sense of the world, neither wise, rich, nor noble. We spoil, if not corrupt the apostle's meaning, by adding are called, as if God did not send his Gospel to the wise, the powerful, and the noble, or did not will their salvation. The truth is, the Gospel has an equal call to all classes of men; but the wise, the mighty, and the noble, are too busy, or too sensual, to pay any attention to an invitation so spiritual and so Divine; and therefore there are few of these in the Church of Christ in general.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. Behold your calling. As the mood of the Greek verb (βλέπετε) is doubtful, and the indicative suits the context equally as well as the imperative, I leave it to the reader’s choice which of them he may prefer. The meaning is manifestly the same in either case, for supposing it to be the indicative (ye see,) he would in that case summon them as witnesses — as of a thing that is manifest, and call them forward as it were to a thing that is present. On the other hand, understanding it in the imperative, he stirs them up, as it were, from their drowsiness to a consideration of the matter itself. The term calling may be taken in a collective sense to mean the multitude of those that are called — in this sense: “Ye see what description of persons they are among you that the Lord has called.” I am, however, rather inclined to think, that he points out the manner of their calling, and it is a most forcible argument, because it follows from this, that, if they despise the abasement of the cross, they in a manner make void their calling, in which God had acted in such a manner, as to take away all merit from human wisdom, and power, and glory. Hence he tacitly accuses them of ingratitude, because, forgetful alike of God’s grace and of themselves, they regard the gospel of Christ with disdain.

Two things, however, must be observed here — that he was desirous from the example of the Corinthians to confirm the truth of what he had said: and farther, that he designed to admonish them, that they must be entirely divested of pride, if they duly considered the order of things that the Lord had observed in their calling. To put to shame, says he, the wise and noble, and to bring to naught things that are Both expressions are appropriate, for fortitude and wisdom vanish when they are put to shame, but what has an existence requires to be brought to naught By the choosing of the poor, and the foolish, and the ignoble, he means, that God has preferred them before the great, and the wise, and the noble. For it would not have sufficed, for beating down the arrogance of the flesh, if God had placed them all upon a level. Hence, those who appeared to excel he put in the background, in order that he might thoroughly abase them. That man, however, were an arrant fool, who would infer from this, that God has in this manner abased the glory of the flesh, in order that the great and noble might be shut out from the hope of salvation. There are some foolish persons that make this a pretext for not merely triumphing over the great, as if God had cast them off, but even despising them as far beneath them. Let us, however, bear in mind, that this is said to the Corinthians, who, though they had no great distinction in the world, were nevertheless, even without any occasion, puffed up. God, therefore, by confounding the mighty, and the wise, and the great, does not design to elate with pride the weak, the illiterate, and the abject, but brings down all of them together to one level. Let those, therefore, that are contemptible in the eyes of the world, think thus with themselves: “What modesty is called for on our part, when even those that have high honor in the view of the world have nothing left them?” If the effulgence of the sun is obscured, what must become of the stars? If the light of the stars is extinguished, what must become of opaque objects?” The design of these observations is, that those who have been called by the Lord, while of no estimation in the view of the world, may not abuse these words of Paul by pluming their crests, but, on the contrary, keeping in mind the exhortation —

Thou standest by faith, be not high-minded, but fear, (Romans 11:20,)

may walk thoughtfully in the sight of God with fear and humility.

Paul, however, does not say here, that there are none of the noble and mighty that have been called by God, but that there are few He states the design of this — that the Lord might bring down the glory of the flesh, by preferring the contemptible before the great. God himself, however, by the mouth of David, exhorts kings to embrace Christ, (Psalm 2:12,) and by the mouth of Paul, too, he declares, that he will have all men to be saved, and that his Christ is offered alike to small and great, alike to kings and their subjects, (1 Timothy 2:1-4.) He has himself furnished a token of this. Shepherds, in the first place, are called to Christ: then afterwards come philosophers: illiterate and despised fishermen hold the highest rank of honor; yet into their school there are received in process of time kings and their counselors, senators and orators.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(26) For ye see your calling.—Better, imperative (as in 1Co_8:9; 1Co_10:18; 1Co_16:10), For see your calling. The Apostle directs them to look at the facts regarding their own calling to Christianity, as an illustration of the truth of what he has just written, viz., that though there were, perhaps, a few of high birth and education who were called, and responded to that call, yet that these are “not many.” It has been well remarked, “the ancient Christians were, for the greater part, slaves and persons of humble rank; the whole history of the progress of the Church is in fact a gradual triumph of the unlearned over the learned, of the lowly over the great, until the emperor himself cast his crown at the foot of Christ’s cross” (Olshausen); or, as an English writer puts it, “Christianity with the irresistible might of its weakness shook the world.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. For ye see your calling, brethren] or perhaps, Behold your calling. So Vulgate, Wiclif and Tyndale. The Apostle adds an illustration of his paradox in 1Co_1:25. The truth is exemplified in the growth of the Christian Church. Its law of progress is the very opposite to that of all ordinary bodies. Not the powerful in rank, authority, and intellect, but the poor, the uneducated, the uninfluential, were first attracted to Christ, until by “a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, the emperor himself laid down his crown before the Cross of Christ.”—Olshausen. Thus the real weakness of man and his incapacity unaided to attain to God were demonstrated, and God’s object, the depriving humanity, as such, of all cause of self-satisfaction (1Co_1:29), attained. It is necessary to add here that the word translated ‘calling’ does not mean what we usually understand by the words vocation in life, but rather “the principle God has followed in calling you” (Beza); cf. Eph_4:1, where the same Greek word is translated vocation, and is followed by wherewith.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For ye see your calling, brethren,.... That is, those that were called by the grace of God among them; for as circumcision and uncircumcision stand for circumcised and uncircumcised persons, and election for elect persons, and righteousness for righteous persons, Rom 3:30 so here "calling" designs men called by grace; the manner of whose calling, and what sort of persons they were, the apostle signifies, they did or might, or ought, to see, observe, and consider; for respect is here had, not, as some have thought, to the first preachers of the Gospel, who were mechanics, fishermen, illiterate persons, very mean and despicable; but to the members of the church at Corinth, whether public preachers, or private members. The city of Corinth had in it many noble families, of high birth and quality, abounded with learned philosophers and rich merchants; and yet it was easy to be seen,

how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. The apostle does not say that there were none of the wise, the mighty, and noble called; for there were Crispus, and Sosthenes, rulers of the synagogue, and Gains a rich hospitable man, and Erastus the chamberlain of the city, and it may be some others of a like or better figure in life; but there were not many of them; instances of this kind are but few recorded in the Scripture; as Joseph of Arimathea a rich counsellor, Paulus Sergius a Roman deputy, Dionysius the Areopagite, and some in Caesar's palace; which show that nobility, riches, and learning, as they do not at all contribute towards a man's salvation, so neither can they hinder it where grace takes place; but, generally speaking, God has thought fit, for wise reasons, to choose and call persons of different characters.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

Ver. 26. Not many mighty] The eagle and lion were not offered in sacrifice, as the lamb and the dove were. It is hard for great ones to deny themselves. Hence it grew to a proverb in times of Popery, that hell was paved with priests’ shaven crowns and great men’s headpieces. Rasis sacrificulorum verticibus et magnatum galeis. (Jerome.) Indeed if men might pass de deliciis ad delicias, e coeno ad coelum, as Jerome hath it; if they could dance with the devil all day, and sup with Christ at night; if they might live all their lives long in Delilah’s lap, and then go to Abraham’s bosom when they die, they would have a fine time of it. But that cannot be, and hence so many mighties miscarry.

Not many noble] Blessed be God that any; as Galeacius Caracciolus, an Italian marquis, and nephew to Pope Paul V, was converted by Peter Martyr reading upon this First Epistle to the Corinthians; George Prince of Anhalt, a pious preaching prince, converted by Melancthon; Ulysses Martinengus, earl of Baccha, another Italian convert, and some few more that might be instanced. But good nobles are black swans (saith one) and thinly scattered in the firmament of a state, even like stars of the first magnitude. We may say of such, as Luther (in Epist. ad John Agricol.) doth of Elizabeth Queen of Denmark, a pious princess, Scilicet Christus etiam aliquando voluit reginam in caelum vehere. Certainly even Christ ever wished to bear a queen into heaven.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For ye see your calling - You know the general character and condition of those who are Christians among you, that they have not been generally taken from the wise, the rich, and the learned, but from humble life. The design of the apostle here is, to show that the gospel did not depend for its success on human wisdom. His argument is, that “in fact” those who were blessed by it had not been of the elevated ranks of life mainly, but that God had shown his power by choosing those who were ignorant, and vicious, and abandoned, and by reforming and purifying their lives. The verb “ye see” βλέπετε blepete, is ambiguous, and may be either in the indicative mood, as our translators have rendered it, “ye do see; you are well apprised of it, and know it,” or it may be in the imperative, “see; contemplate your condition;” but the sense is substantially the same. “Your calling” (τὴν κλῆσιν tēn klēsin) means “those who are called” 1Co 1:9; as “the circumcision” means those who are circumcised. Rom 3:30. The sense is, “took upon the condition of those who are Christians.”

Not many wise men - Not many who are regarded as wise; or who are ranked with philosophers. This supposes that there were some of that description, though the mass of Christians were then, as now, from more humble ranks of life. That there were some of high rank and wealth at Corinth who became Christians, is well known. Crispus and Sosthenes, rulers of the synagogue there (Act 28:8, Act 28:17; Compare 1Co 1:1); Gaius, a rich, hospitable man Rom 16:23; and Erastus the chancellor of the city of Corinth Rom 16:23, had been converted and were members of the church. Some have supposed (“Macknight”) that this should be rendered “not many mighty, wise, etc. ‘call you;’ that is, God has not employed the wise and the learned ‘to call’ you into his kingdom.” But the sense in our translation is evidently the correct interpretation. It is the obvious sense; and it agrees with the design of the apostle, which was to show that God had not consulted the wisdom, and power, and wealth of men in the establishment of his church. So the Syriac and the Vulgate render it.

According to the flesh - According to the maxims and principles of a sensual and worldly policy; according to the views of people when under the influence of those principles; that is, who are unrenewed. The flesh here stands opposed to the spirit; the views of the people of this world in contradistinction from the wisdom that is from above.

Not many mighty - Not many people of power; or men sustaining important “offices” in the state. Comp, Rev 6:15. The word may refer to those who wield power of any kind, whether derived from office, from rank, from wealth, etc.

Not many noble - Not many of illustrious birth, or descended from illustrious families - εὐγενεῖς eugeneis, “well-born.” In respect to each of these classes, the apostle does not say that there were no men of wealth, and power, and birth, but that the mass or body of Christians was not composed of such. They were made up of those who were in humble life. There were a few, indeed, of rank and property, as there are now; but then, as now, the great mass was composed of those who were from the lower conditions of society. The reason why God had chosen his people from that rank is stated in 1Co 1:29. The character of many of those who composed the church at Corinth before the conversion, is stated in 1Co 6:10-11, which see.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vocation, is here used for the called, as Romans iii. 30. circumcision for the circumcised, (Romans xi. 7.) election for the elect. (Bible de Vence) --- Consider you manner of being called; not many, hitherto, of those who have believed, or of those who have preached the gospel, are wise according to the flesh, or as to worldly wisdom; and in the esteem of men, not many mighty, not many noble. God hath chosen such as are looked upon as illiterate, without power, without riches, without human wisdom, to confound the great and wise men: He hath chosen the things that are not, that is, says St. John Chrysostom, men reputed as nothing, of no consideration, to confound, to destroy, to make subject to him, and to the gospel, men who had the greatest worldly advantages, that no flesh, no men how great, wise, rich, or powerful soever, might glory in his sight, or attribute their call, and their salvation to their own merits. --- From him you are in Christ Jesus brought to believe in him, who is made to us wisdom, acknowledged to be the wisdom of his eternal Father, by whom we have been justified, sanctified, redeemed. We have nothing of ourselves to boast of, and can only glory in the Lord. (Witham) --- And the mean things. In the beginning of Christianity, it was frequently objected to the Christians, that they had none but men of the basest extraction. The emperor Julian likewise made the Catholics the same reproach. (Grotius) --- But this objection was not founded; for we find many persons of considerable mention in the Scriptures, who had embraced Christianity. Witness, ver. 1. of this chap. Sosthenes, the head of the synagogue at Corinth, and some in the very palace of Cæsar.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

To prove that this is the method of Divine Providence, to make use of seemingly infirm and weak means to produce his great effects, you need not look further than yourselves; look upon the whole body of your church at Corinth, it is not made up of many that have a reputation for the wise men or the noble men of your city. Some indeed were such; Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, was converted, and Sosthenes; but the generality were men of very ordinary repute.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26. Ye see—Rather, in the imperative, Behold, contemplate your calling.

Your calling—Not, says Wordsworth, “την κλησιν υμετεραν your calling; but την κλησιν υμων, the calling of you.” That is, God’s calling of you into the kingdom of Christ, implying your acceptance and all its blessed results.

Not many wise—Why were not many sophoi called? Because the pride of their sophia was in the way. They were called, indeed; but they never, by faith, became the called. They were called to repentance and faith; but never were the called, upon repentance and faith, to be saints.

How their sophia was in the way we see in the case of Gallio, the philosopher, at this very Corinth. Act_18:12-17, where see notes. Christianity, brought before him by our illustrious apostle, was repudiated even from examination by antecedent contempt, as a mere matter “of words and names.” He heard of it with nervous impatience, and dismissed it with unmannerly abruptness. What was true in Corinth was true on a larger scale in the whole Roman world. The sages of the age of Tacitus, Seneca, Pliny, and hundreds of lesser literati and philosophers, deemed Christianity unentitled to investigation. And yet, according to the skeptical historian Lecky, and others, of the same school, the true cause of the triumph of Christianity in the Roman empire was not miracles, but the obvious superiority of Christianity over all rival systems of religion.

Not many mighty—Few statesmen, warriors, princes. The government of the Roman empire, civil and military, was a stupendous system, at the head of which was Nero, a butcher and a fiddler. Ecclesiastically it was paganism, with Capitoline Jupiter at its head. Politically and ecclesiastically it was a sham, destined in due time to go down to ruin.

Not many noble—Ancient Corinth was celebrated for its brilliant, high-born, old nobility. Its great, ancient families, now extinct, were instances how transient are all earthly grandeurs. But of the new and rather vulgar aristocracy of modern Corinth, restored from the conflagration inflicted by Mummius, probably few deigned to enter the house of Justus, near the synagogue, where Paul held forth the foolishness of preaching to busy Corinth. Slaves, artisans, and a few of the higher class, in whom religious interest overcame the pride of rank, received the holy truth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 26-31. The method of God in the spread of the gospel.

For behold; or, consider (imperative, as in 1 Corinthians. Php_3:2) Your calling; the nature and method of your heavenly calling; the "principle God has followed in calling you" (Beza); Eph_4:1; Heb_3:1. Not many wise after the flesh. Those who hear the calling arc alone the truly wise; but they are net wise with a carnal wisdom, not wise as men count wisdom; they have but little of the wisdom of the serpent and the wisdom of "this age." The Sanhedrin looked down on the apostles as "unlearned and ignorant men". (Act_4:13) "God, says St. Augustine, "caught orators by fishermen, not fishermen by orators." Not many mighty; i.e. not many persons of power and influence. Almost the first avowed Gentile Christian of the highest rank was the consul Flavius Clemens, uncle of the Emperor Domitian. This was the more marked because the Jews won many rich and noble proselytes, such as the Queen Helena and the royal family of Adiabene, Poppaea the wife of Nero, and others. The only illustrious converts mentioned in the New Testament are Joseph of Arimathaea, Nicodemus, Sergius Paulus, and Dionysius the Areopagitc. Not many noble. All this was a frequent taunt against Christians, but they made it their boast. Christianity came to redeem and elevate, not the few, but the many, and the many must ever be the weak and the humble. Hence Christ called fishermen as his apostles, and was known as "the Friend of publicans and sinners." None of the rulers believed on him. (Joh_7:48) It must, however, be borne in mind that these words apply mainly and primarily to the first age of Christianity. It was essential that its victory should be due to Divine weapons only, and that it should shake the world "by the irresistible might of weakness." After a time, the wisest and the noblest and the most powerful were called. Kings became the nursing fathers of the gospel, and queens its nursing mothers.

Yet the ideal truth remains, and human power shows utter weakness, and human wisdom is capable of sinking into the depths of folly.

Vers. 26-29.

God destroying the conventionally great by the conventionally contemptible.

ye see your calling, brethren," etc. These verses remind us of two facts.

I EVIL EXISTS HERE UNDER CONVENTIONALLY RESPECTABLE FORMS, Evil is spoken of in these verses as the "wise" and the "mighty." In Corinth dangerous errors wore the costume of wisdom. Power was also on their side. Sages, poets, artists, statesmen, wealth, and influence stood by them, and they appeared "mighty." Men in England, as in Corinth, have robed evils in attractive costumes, and labelled them with brilliant names. Often, indeed, has religion itself been used as a means of covering vices, and of raising the vilest passions of the human heart into the spheres of worship. Everywhere evil assumes a respectable garb.

1. Infidelity. This great evil writes and speaks in the stately formularies of philosophy and science; borrows its sanctions from astronomy, chronology, criticism, and metaphysics. It is a "wise" thing of the world.

2. Licentiousness. This evil, which involves the utter neglect of all social obligations, and the unrestrained development of the base and vicious lusts of the soul, passes under the grand name of liberty. The vaunted religious liberty of England"s population means often only power to neglect sacred ordinances, profane the holy sabbath, etc.

3. Social injustice. This is a demon which works in every sphere of life, leading the crafty to take advantage of the ignorant, the strong of the weak, the rich of the poor; and this does most of its fiendish work in the name of law.

4. Selfishness. This goes under the name of prudence. The man whose heart knows no throb of sympathy for another passes through life with the reputation of a prudent man.

5. Bigotry. This, which leads men to brand all who differ from them as heretics and doom them to perdition, wears the sacred name of religion.

6. War. This, which by the common consent of all Christian philosophers is the pandemonium where all evil passions of the human heart run riot in their most fiendish forms, is called glory. Thus here and now, as everywhere and ever, evil appears as the "wise" and the "mighty." That errors and evils should appear in respectable forms is one of the most unfavourable symptoms in all the history of man. Could we but take from sin the mantle of respectability that society has thrown over it, we should do much towards its annihilation.

II GOD IS DETERMINED TO OVERTHROW EVIL BY CONVENTIONALLY CONTEMPTIBLE MEANS. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise," etc. The "wise" and the "mighty" cannot protect evil. The agency to sweep evil away is here represented as "foolish," "weak," "base," "despised," and "things which are not." What does this language mean?

1. It does not mean that the gospel is an inferior thing. The gospel is no mean thing. It has proved itself the wisdom of God and the power of God.

2. It does not mean that tile men appointed as its ministers are to be inferior. There are several things to show that the gospel ministry requires the highest order of mind.

(1) The character of the work. What is the work? Not the mere narration of facts or the enunciation of the current opinions of men. No; it is teaching men in all wisdom. Teaching implies the impartation to others of what they are ignorant of, and that in such a way as will commend it to the common sense.

(2) The character of the system. If a man is to teach the gospel, he must first learn it. What a system it is to learn! Simpletons call the gospel simple; but intelligence has ever found it of all subjects the most profound and difficult. The greatest thinkers of all ages have found the work no easy task.

(3) The character of society. Who exerts the most influence upon the real life of the men and women around him? The man of thought and intelligence. If the gospel ministry is to influence men it must be employed by men of the highest type of culture and ability.

(4) The spirit of the work. What is the moral spirit in which the gospel should be presented to men? Humble, charitable, forbearing, reverent. Such a spirit comes only from deep thought and extensive knowledge.

(5) The character of the apostles. Where can you find greater force of soul than Paul had? more searching sagacity than James had? They were men of talent and thought. Away, then, with the thought that the words here afford any encouragement for an ignorant or feeble ministry.

3. What, then, do they mean?

(1) That the gospel was conventionally mean. The Founder was a carpenter"s Son. It was a "foolish" thing to the Greek, etc.

(2) That the first ministers were conventionally mean. They were fishermen, clerks, tent makers, etc. The system and its ministers, however, are merely conventionally contemptible, nothing more. These, like many other things that erring man regards as insignificant and mean, shall do a great work.

(1) Treat, so long as evils exist in the world, great commotions are to be expected. God has chosen this system to "confound and bring to nought" things that arc.

(2) That the removal of evil from the world is, under God, to be effected through man as man. The gospel is to make its way in the world, not by men invested with adventitious endowments, such as scientific attainments, etc., but by men as men endowed with the common powers of human nature, but these powers inspired and directed by the living gospel.

Vers. 26-29.

The humble status of the Church.

I THE FACT. Not many wise after the flesh, mighty, noble, numbered amongst the adherents of Christianity. This was true in apostolic days; it is largely true in our own. Christianity was not established by world power. The Founder and his disciples were poor and of humble social position, and in the ranks of the early Christians were comparatively few possessing means, learning, or rank. Christianity has not been preserved or promulgated by world power. This has sometimes been called to its aid, but the "call" has often been of man rather than of God. The "aid" has frequently been injury. The "arm of flesh" has hindered rather than helped. The Church should not snatch at world power; this is not her strength. Sanctified learning, influence, and position are of great service; but these things in themselves, unsanctified, whilst to carnal judgment promising most signal advantage, often operate as an unmitigated curse. We may require into the cause of the exclusion as arising from free will. And we may be sure that no calling by God violates human responsibility.

1. The wise after the flesh. These, like the Greeks (ver. 22), are often so filled with human wisdom as not to care for Divine so absorbed by seeking to know earthly things as to have little leisure for heavenly. Pride is fostered, and pride bars the way to Christ and to God. It is difficult for a very "wise" man to become "as a little child". (Luk_18:17) "Heaven"s gates are not so highly arched as princes" palaces; they who enter there must go upon their knees." The wise after the flesh are apt to have stiff legs. When we seek earthly wisdom we should have a care of its tendency. Human knowledge is good, but it need be kept in its proper place, and that is not the first place.

2. The mighty. Often subjects of adulation; have so many at their feet that they find it difficult to sit at the feet of Jesus. Excessive self reliance does not encourage Christ reliance. A sense of sufficiency is very antagonistic to "God be merciful to me a sinner." The mighty are wont to be too mighty, so that they can do without Christ. The mighty know their might, whereas what men need is to know their weakness.

3. The noble. High places are slippery. The command of temptations is great. Wealth, which often accompanies position, multiplies snares. Lofty station often begets a sense of excellence; but to enter the kingdom we need to feel our lack of excellence. It is easy to be great among men and very little before God. Earthly nobility and heavenly are two orders often in startling contrast, Note: Men strive eagerly to be wise after the flesh, mighty, noble, wealthy and all the while they way be building barriers between themselves and God. How well to commit our ways to the guidance of the unerring wisdom of God; to ask him to "choose our inheritance for us"; (Psa_47:4) to give or withhold as he sees best!

II THE PURPOSE. Regarding the Church as weak and uninfluential, we might feel some despondency as to its future. "How is Christianity to get on?" might escape our lips. So men are often very anxious to take care of Christianity instead of being very anxious that Christianity should take care of them. There is a sense in which the idea of our defending the faith is monstrous and absurd it is not we who defend the faith, it is the faith that defends us. The matter is cleared by the revelation of a Divine purpose. God designed:

1. To show his power. He would prove that feeble agencies in his hands are infinitely more mighty than the greatest and most influential not so placed. A "bruised reed" in his hand is more than a sword in another"s. Men think that "things seen" are powerful; that which is unseen is much more so. The foolish things confounded the wise, the weak things the mighty, the base and despised things the highly esteemed, because God was in the former and not in the latter. How this was illustrated in the early Church! the foolishness of preaching breaking down everywhere the "wise philosophic systems; the weak disciples triumphing over the marshalled might of Rome; a Church, boasting as its Founder a crucified peasant, and possessing little wealth, influence, or human learning, spreading on all hands, and destroying idolatries venerable in age and powerful in adherents. "God moves in a mysterious way." It is God moving. A Church is made, not by the men who come into it, but by the God who comes into it. The Church needs more divinity. Here is solace for the consciously weak. We cry, "Who is sufficient for these things?" There is but one answerGod!

2. To humble human pride. "That no flesh should glory in his presence." The pride of man budded at the Fall. The all successful stratagem took this form: "Ye shall be as gods. This pride has been the curse of man"s existence it has separated him from God, and led to a fearful multiplication of transgression. When God works in man, a first effect is the abasement of pride. The pride of man which is altogether of the devil, has persuaded man that he is God. God, in the formation and continuance of his Church on earth, dealt a deadly blow against human pride, and showed how powerless were the mightiest things of man when confronted with Divine power working through the weakest. The lesson is that henceforth we are not to glory in men neither in ourselves nor in others, but we are to glory in the Lord. When we are humbled at his feet, we are in our right posture; when we acknowledge that with him alone are might and dominion and true wisdom, we are in our right minds. H. Vers. 26-31.

Salvation all of God.

The apostle has shown, in the previous section, flint the cross of Christ, which men count foolish and weak, is really the wisdom and the power of God. In proof of this he now calls their attention to the social status of the converts at Corinth. For the most part they were of no account in the world"s esteem; but, though nobodies according to the flesh, they were raised to true dignity in Christ.

I THE CHRISTIAN CALLING DOES NOT PROCEED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THIS WORLD. "For behold your calling, brethren," etc. The Church at Corinth was composed chiefly of the poor and the illiterate. The philosophers and the rich merchants, the high born and those who occupied positions of influence, had but few representatives among the disciples of Jesus. They were drawn in great part from those whom the world reckoned foolish, weak, base, and of no importance. And the case of Corinth was not singular. It is characteristic of Christianity to begin low down. The Lord Jesus himself was not born in a royal palace or nursed among the lordly of the earth. His birthplace was a stable, his home the simple dwelling of Joseph, his training school the carpenter"s workshop, his disciples were derived mainly from the labouring classes. One or two of the twelve may have been in easy circumstances, but none of them appears to have been of high birth; and outside this circle his followers, with the exception of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea, were almost entirely of the same class. From the beginning, therefore, the gospel found acceptance, not in the high places of the land, nor among the representatives of the learning and religion of the time, but among the plain, unschooled, unsophisticated people. "The poor have good tidings preached to them". (Luk_7:22) Beyond the bounds of Palestine it was the same. The pride of wisdom and station closed the ear against the story of the cross. It did not flatter the wise or the great. It spoke to all alike as sinners needing a common salvation, and summoned all to repentance and faith. The result may be illustrated by comparing the reception of the gospel at Athens and at Corinth. In the metropolis of philosophy and art only a few were converted; (Act_17:16-34) in the capital of trade a large Church was formed. So also at Rome. The first and chief successes of the gospel were among the lower classes of society; and this was urged as an objection against it. Celsus jeers at the fact that "wool workers, cobblers, leather dressers, the most illiterate and clownish of men, were zealous preachers of the gospel, and particularly that they addressed themselves, in the first instance, to women and children." The rend Roman could not understand a religion which treated the slave as a man, and addressed itself equally to all. But the leaven thus put into the mass spread not only outwards but upwards. From slave to master, from plebeian to patrician, did the blessed influence pass, till at last the emperor himself was constrained to do homage to Jesus Christ. To a large extent the course of the gospel is the same still. In our own country the profession of Christianity is not confined to any class in society; but a living godliness is a plant of rarer growth. Among our men of science, our philosophers and poets, and our hereditary nobility, there are to be found eminent Christians, whose lives evince the power of the gospel over the finest intellects and the most exalted station; yet it is mainly among those less privileged that the Church is strongest. The greatest number of her members are to be found among the humbler classes, especially among those who have neither riches nor poverty, and who know the meaning of honest work. Illustrate also from the history of modern missions to the heathen.

II REASONS FOR THE DIVINE METHOD. When men inaugurate any new scheme or system, they seek the patronage of great names in order to recommend it to the people; but the gospel of salvation was not proclaimed to the world under the auspices of kings and philosophers. This is referred to the purpose of God (vers. 27, 28), according to which all things proceed. More particularly the end in view is:

1. The humiliation of human pride. "That no flesh should glory before God" (ver. 29). Human wisdom and power are of small account in this matter. Salvation is all of God. Had he chosen the wise and the great, pride might have boasted itself before him; but in choosing the foolish and the

2. weak, all ground of glorying is removed. This does not imply that the one class is of more value in God"s sight than the other; nor does it put a premium upon ignorance and weakness. It means that the wise man will not be saved because of his wisdom, nor the nobleman because of his high birth, nor the rich man because of his wealth. All trust in these things must be put to shame, as is done when they that are destitute of them enter the kingdom of heaven more readily. In the eye of the gospel all men arc equal, which means that some must be humbled, while others are exalted. It is always our Father"s way to "hide these things from the wise and understanding, and to reveal them unto babes". (Mat_11:25) Pride is at once insulting to God and hurtful to man; and it is in mercy that he requires us to "become as little children". (Mat_18:3) In like manner, the advance of the gospel in the earth is not to be promoted by an arm of flesh. ("not by might, nor by power," etc. Zec_4:6) Christian work must not be undertaken for the aggrandizement of persons, or parties, or sects. The flesh must not be elevated to the dishonour of God.

3. The advancement of the Divine glory. Human pride is to be humbled, that the honour of salvation may belong to God alone. It is the prerogative of the Almighty to make his own glory the chief end of all he does. No created being can do so. For man and angel, happiness consists in seeking the glory of our Father in heaven. A life with self as the centre, self as the aim, must be a life of misery. Does not this explain the misery of Satan? "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven!" It is otherwise with the Most High. To seek his own glory is simply to desire truth and reality. In the nature of things all praise is due to him alone who is the Alpha and the Omega of existence. Hence the glory of God coincides with the greatest happiness of men, in the matter of salvation as in other things. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

III THE RICHES IN CHRIST. Salvation is due entirely to God. It is of him that we are in Christ Jesus. The believer"s union with Christ has been brought about by God Himself, who has given us all things in his Son.

1. Wisdom. "In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden". (Col_2:3) He reveals to us God his nature and his will, his purpose and plan of grace. In the person and work of Christ; in his incarnation, life, teaching, atonement, the wisdom of God shines out conspicuously. And in union with Christ we become truly wise. In him we have the key which opens all mysteries. We learn to know God and to know ourselves; and in him the broken fellowship between God and us is restored. The quest for wisdom, alike in its speculative and in its practical form, is satisfied only in him.

1. Righteousness. He is "Jehovah our Righteousness". (Jer_23:6) To be righteous is to be in entire consistence with the mind and Law of God; and this Jesus, as our Representative, was. He bore the penalty of our sins, and met the positive requirements of the Law; and thus wrought out a righteousness for us (2Co_5:12; Gal_3:13; 1Pe_2:24) When by faith we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour, his work is reckoned to us, and we are received as righteous for his sake.

2. Sanctification. This includes the whole of the process by which we are restored to the image of God. Not only is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, the character of Christ must also be reproduced in us; and this is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is his to illuminate, regenerate, purify; and the whole man thus renewed is consecrated to God. Every part of the nature spirit, soul, body; every activity of thought, affection, desire, purpose; all are transformed and devoted to the noblest service. Justification and sanctification are the two sides of one whole, never to be separated.

3. Redemption. This denotes deliverance from all evil, enemies, afflictions, death. Soul and body shall be completely emancipated, and presented at last without blemish (Rom_8:23; Eph_5:26, Eph_5:27)

LESSONS.

1. To be emptied of self is a necessary condition of God"s working in us and by us.

2. Give God all the glory of salvation.

3. Christ is the Source of all blessings. "In him ye are made full". B. (Col_2:10)

Vers. 26-30.

Intellectual power and moral power: which does God chiefly honour and use?

Paul"s point appears to be that the wisdom of God is declared in his using moral rather than material or intellectual forces in carrying out his great purpose of human redemption. The material forces had to be set aside in order that the moral forces might work without obstruction; therefore only the simplest human agents were chosen as the apostles and first preachers of the gospel. It is stilt true that moral character and spiritual affinities are the best fitnesses for Christian service. It may be well to compare the moral and the intellectual powers.

I THEY ARE OFTEN CONNECTED IN THE SAME PERSON. There is no natural divorcement between them. They may be found in becoming harmony.

II IN IDEAL MANHOOD THEY MUST BE SO CONNECTED. For the ideal man has all the faculties and powers of his nature proportionally and harmoniously cultured and developed.

III IN ACTUAL FACT THEY ARE TOO OFTEN SEVERED. And this is the fact, mainly by reason of the disturbance and disorder of man"s nature, which follows as the consequence of sin. Self will tends to nourish those parts of our nature through which we may gain human place and praise; and so it fosters the material and intellectual at the expense of the moral and spiritual.

IV GOD SETS MORAL POWER AT THE HIGHEST VALUE. And this he manifests and declares in every revelation he makes to men, passing by the "rich and great and wise" to exalt the humble and the meek. He honours moral power because of its sphere. It is character, and the influence of character, the force of the man himself, of what he is. And because of its agent. It is the soul, the man"s very self, and not the mind, which is only something the man has. Then show what is the true self culture. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behold your calling - What manner of men they are whom God calls. That not many wise men after the flesh - In the account of the world. Not many mighty - Men of power and authority.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The status of the believers:

v. 26. For ye see your calling’, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called;

v. 27. but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

v. 28. and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are,

v. 29. that no flesh should glory in His presence.

v. 30. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption,

v. 31. that, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.

The miraculous working of the power and wisdom of God is exemplified in the case of the Corinthian Christians themselves. The apostle urges them to consider, to contemplate earnestly, their calling, the act of God’s calling as it affected their own ranks. There were not many wise according to the flesh in their midst, few that ranked high as the people of this world rate knowledge; there were not many powerful, such as were influential in public affairs by reason of their wealth or social or political position; there were not many noble-born, people of aristocratic rank by birth. "Few intellectual men, few politicians, few of the better class of free citizens embraced Christianity. " There is a sharp contrast: But the foolish things of the world God has chosen to put to shame the wise men. The Christians are not only considered bigoted, but actually narrow-minded and lacking in the proper use of their reasoning faculty. And the weak things of the world has God chosen to put to shame the strong ones. Those whose numbers would tend to make them anything but a power in the world in many cases control the destinies of nations. And the base, the vile things of the world and the utterly despised things has God chosen, and the things which are non-existent before the pride of the world, which are made absolutely nothing of, which are not considered as by any possibility having any weight, in order to make null and void, to deprive of all validity, that which is something in the judgment of men. Since the time of Christ the believers have been despised, scorned, ignored, and yet they have displayed a power of action and endurance which cannot be accounted for by reasonable suppositions. The despotism of the Roman emperors, the tyranny of the medieval hierarchy, the inquisition of the counter-reformation, all the so-called assured result of modern science falsely so called have not been able to overcome or to render obsolete the truth and the power of the Gospel. For it is the power of God that lives in the message of salvation, and it is His grace which has chosen the lowly. And therefore no flesh, no human being, can boast before God. No matter how wise, how powerful, how rich the children of the world may be, before God they can boast of nothing. No man can say that he, out of his own endeavors, or position, or worth has contributed anything to the success of the Gospel. And therefore the vessels of mercy also will never be tempted to allege their own fitness and their own readiness to accept the wealth of God’s wisdom and power. It is all the mercy of God’s election, the grace of God’s call.

This thought is emphasized by the apostle in conclusion: Out of Him, due to His grace and power, you are in Christ Jesus. God has brought us to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, because we are the spiritual offspring of God by His grace, and the life which we have received from God is grounded in Christ. And what this life in Christ all includes the apostle shows: Who was made Wisdom unto us from God, Righteousness as well as Sanctification and Redemption. All this has been revealed to us by faith and has become our property through faith. By the grace of God, Christ has become Wisdom to us: in and through Him the mystery of the divine plan of salvation has been unfolded to us; in and through Him we know God as our dear Father and through this knowledge have eternal life, Joh 17:3. But this would not be possible were it not for the fact that Christ became unto us Righteousness as well as Sanctification, 2Co 5:21; Jer 23:5; Mat 3:15; Gal 2:16-17. The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us as well as His perfect fulfillment of the Law, and thus our whole life is consecrated to God, and every act is a work of divine service. "For that is Christ’s rule. To that end He has been placed as the Lord, that He might do such works among men, justify them, and bring them back to the fear of God, innocence, and obedience, from which we fell in Paradise through the cunning of the serpent. " These great benefits are ours by faith, not because faith in itself is a work which merits the blessings, but because it accepts the promise made by God that He for the sake of Christ would be gracious to those that believe in Him. For Christ is our Redemption; by paying the ransom of His blood and life He has delivered us forever from the power of all our enemies; He had in Himself the power to achieve this deliverance, 1Th 1:10; Col 1:13-14. And thus we have in Him the guarantee of the glory of eternal life which will be revealed to us on the last day. And all this is God’s free gift of grace, excluding all boasting on our part, all alleging of merit before Him. As it is written: He that glories shall glory in the Lord, Jer 9:23-24. There should be boasting and praising indeed, but only in God, as the Author of our salvation. Where the preaching of the Cross reveals God’s mercy and righteousness, God’s wisdom and power, only one boasting shall be heard, namely, this: All glory be to God on high!

Summary.After opening his letter with a salutation, the apostle thanks God for the revelation of His grace, reproves the Corinthian Christians for their wranglings, which had resulted in the formation of factions, and discusses at length the wisdom and power of God as revealed in the Gospel.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The singular favour which our apostle calls upon the Corinthians to eye and view, namely, their effectual vocation and calling out of heathenism to the profession of Christianity: You see your calling brethren. Such as are exalted by God in any kind, ought to call to mind their former meanness; but those that are persuasively called by God out of a state of nature, ought frequently to observe and consider the worth and weight of that mercy, and the freeness of that divine favour: Brethren, see, and take notice of your calling.

Observe, 2. That God has in all ages called some of all ranks and degrees of men, of the wise and great, the rich and noble, to the knowledge of himself and his Son. Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; he doth not say, not any, but not many, lest the world should think that Christians were deceived through their simplicity and weakness; one rich Joseph of Arimathea, one honourable Nicodemus, one Crispus, a ruler of the synagogue, but not many men of might and power.

Men of strong reason and sharpness of wit, are too proud and stout to stoop to the simplicity of the gospel, and the humbling, self-denying terms of it; yet some of the wise and mighty are called, lest any thing in man should seem too hard for the grace of God; but not many, lest worth and worthiness in us should be thought the motive that rules God.

Men of greatest fame and renown in the world, have been the fiercest enemies against Christ and Christianity. Galen, the chief physician, Porphyry, a chief philosopher, Lucian, a chief orator, with many others, were all professed enemies of the Christian religion.

Wherefore observe, 3. That although God called some of the wise, rich, and noble, amongst the Jews and Gentiles, to espouse Christianity, yet the far greater number of those which hear his voice, and obey his call, are poor and mean, and in the world’s esteem weak and foolish, base and despicable: God hath chosen foolish things to confound the wise, and weak things to confound the mighty.

This was verified in the choice which God made of the apostles, who first planted Christianity in the world, and though illiterate fishermen, confuted and confounded the wisest among philosophers; and also in the choice God made of the primitive Christians, who first entertained the gospel, who were a poor, despised company, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom? Jas 2:5

This choice Christ thanks his Father for, Mat 11:25 and the wisdom of God therein deserves our highest admiration; because thereby,

1. God plainly showed that Christianity needed do worldly props to support it. As it was first planted and propagated by weak and contemptible means and instruments, so it is still upheld and supported without human policy or riches: God can outwit wise men by fools, and overpower mighty men by those that are weak; witness the apostles and primitive Christians.

2. God by this choice of the weak and foolish, of the base and despised, does pour contempt upon those things which are most admired among men, namely, the internal endowments of the mind, strong reason, and sharpness of wit; and the external gifts of providence, nobility of birth, riches, and honours.

Lord! what shame and confusion of face will cover the noble and honourable, the great and mighty, the rich and wealthy, in the coming world, when they shall see those poor Christians, whom they despised for their poverty, scorned for their meanness of parts, as unworthy to come into their presence, highly exalted in the favour of God, and proclaimed the heirs of his kingdom!

For as here God has more rent, and better paid him (as the great Landlord of the world) from many smoky cottages, than from divers great palaces, where persons wallow in plenty, and forget God; so will God own his faithful, though despised servants, at the great day, and make it evident to angels and men, that he accepteth not the person of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor; but every one that here feared him, and wrought righteousness, shall be accepted of him, and rewarded by him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. “For behold your calling, brethren, because not many wise after the flesh.” Jesus said, “The poor have the gospel preached unto them.” When the prophets and teachers at Antioch, responsive to the call of the Holy Ghost, sent out Barnabas and Paul to evangelize the heathen world, they laid but one embargo on them, and that was “to remember the poor,” which Paul certifies that “they were always diligent to perform.” The Lord’s people have always been among the lowly of this world, and doubtless always will be. During this dark age of Satan’s reign (2Co 4:4), the rich possess this world, and are so well satisfied with it that it is a miracle of grace for one of them to seek the world to come. As the poor have neither possessions nor emoluments to wed them to this world, they are the people who hail the gospel as a feast, rally under the banner of King Jesus, shout the battle cry, and aspire to a home in Heaven, which they never were able to possess on earth. “Not many influential.” It is a significant fact that the influential people in State and Church, as a rule, are not the custodians of the Heavenly treasury, but the contemners of perfect humility, radical unworldliness, intrinsic holiness, and a meek and unpretentious life, such as Jesus lived. When the Holiness Movement becomes “influential,” like Samson, she has left her locks of spiritual power in the lap of the world’s Delilah, and taken the fatal plunge into spiritual darkness, hopelessly gone in the track of fallen Protestantism, Romanism and Judaism. “Not many well born.” To find a European nobleman, an Asiatic nabob, or an American millionaire truly devout, humble, holy, meek and lowly, like the Man of Galilee, would create a sensation in popular journalism like the discovery of a planet.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For behold your calling [the "principle God has followed in calling you"--Beza; a principle whereby "God," as Augustine says, "caught orators by fishermen, not fishermen by orators"], brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called [The wise were moved by conceit to reject the gospel invitation: see the case of Gallio ( Act_18:12-17 ). The corruptness of Roman politics kept the mighty aloof from the purity of Christianity, and the pride of noble birth felt repugnance at the lowly fellowship of the early church. A brief catalogue will record all the distinguished names brought into the church during its first thirty years, viz.: Joseph of Arimathea, perhaps Nicodemus, Saul of Tarsus, Sergius Paulus and Dionysius the Areopagite]:

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

26–31. Not many wise men after the flesh. Paul now shows the weakness of the human instrumentality chosen to convert the world; not those the world called wise, not the mighty, not the noble, yet the work was moving on with wonderful power.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul emphasizes the believer's position before God.

Not many of you

This can be stated in positive form. AT: "Very few of you"

wise by human standards

"what most people would call wise"

of noble birth

"special because your family is important"

God chose ... wise. God chose ... strong

Paul repeats many of the same words in two sentences that mean almost the same thing to emphasize the difference between God's way of doing things and how people think God should do them. (See: Parallelism)

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise

"God chose to use those whom the world thinks are foolish to shame those whom the world thinks are wise"

God chose what is weak in the world to shame what is strong

"God chose to use those whom the world thinks are weak to shame those whom the world thinks are strong"

translationWords

call

wise

power

fool

shame

chosen one

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

26. βλέπετε γὰρ τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν. Perhaps, Behold your calling. So Vulgate, Wiclif and Tyndale. The Apostle adds an illustration of his paradox in 1Co 1:25. The truth is exemplified in the growth of the Christian Church. Its law of progress is the very opposite to that of all ordinary bodies. Not the powerful in rank, authority, and intellect, but the poor, the uneducated, the uninfluential, were first attracted to Christ, until by ‘a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, the emperor himself laid down his crown before the Cross of Christ.’—Olshausen. Thus the real weakness of man and his incapacity unaided to attain to God were demonstrated, and God’s object, the depriving humanity, as such, of all cause of self-satisfaction (1Co 1:29), attained. It is necessary to add here that κλῆσιν does not mean what we usually understand by the words vocation in life, but rather ‘the principle God has followed in calling you’ (Beza); cf. Eph 4:1, where the same Greek word is translated vocation, and is followed by wherewith.

δυνατοί. Powerful, or we should now say influential. See Thuc. II. 65, where it is explained by τῷ ἀξιώματι καὶ τῇ γνώμῃ.

εὐγενεῖς. Lit. well-born. Winer and Meyer prefer to complete the sentence with εἰσί here instead of with the ‘are called’ of the A.V.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26.] βλέπετε, imperative, as in reff. If taken indicatively, it loses the emphasis which its place in the sentence requires. It would thus be τὴν γὰρ κλῆσιν ὑμῶν βλέπετε. See a similar reminder on the part of the Apostle, 1Th 1:4.

γάρ seems best to apply to what has immediately gone before. As a proof that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men, he calls attention to the fact that the Christian church, so full of divine wisdom and strength by the indwelling Spirit of God, consisted for the most part, not of the wise or mighty among men, but of those whom the world despised.

κλῆσιν, as in reff. the calling ἐν ᾗ ἐκληθημεν—the vocation and standing of Christian men.

ὅτι οὐ πολλοὶ …] that not many of you are wise according to the flesh (‘significari vult sapientiam, quæ studio humano absque doctrina Spiritus Sancti potest acquiri,’ Estius), not many mighty (no need to supply κατὰ σάρκα, which is understood as a matter of course), not many noble. This is far better than to supply (as E. V., and most Commentators) ἐκλήθησαν after εὐγενεῖς; and thus Vulg., Chrys., Beza, Meyer, De Wette, al. Olsh. observes: “The ancient Christians were for the most part slaves and men of low station; the whole history of the expansion of the church is in reality a progressive victory of the ignorant over the learned, the lowly over the lofty, until the emperor himself laid down his crown before the cross of Christ.”

27,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. βλέπετε γάρ. An unanswerable argumentum ad hominem, clinching the result of the above passage, especially the comprehensive principle of v. 25. The verb is imperative (RV.), not indicative (AV.), and governs τὴν κλῆσιν directly. It is needless subtlety to make τ. κλ. an accusative of respect, ‘Behold—with reference to your call—how that not many,’ etc.

τὴν κλῆσιν ὑμῶν. ‘Summon before your mind’s eye what took place then; not the ranks from which one by one you were summoned into the society of God’s people; very few come from the educated, influential, or well-connected class.’ With κλῆσις compare κλητοί, vv. 2, 24: it refers, not so much to the external call, or even to the internal call of God, as to the conversion which presupposes the latter: πάντων ἀνθρώπων κεκλημένων οἰ ὐπακοῦσαι βουληθέντες κλητοὶ ὠνομάσθηαν (Clem. Alex. Strom. I.P. 314). See on 7:20, and Westcott on Eph 1:18.

ἀδελφοί. As in v. 10, the affectionate address softens what might give pain.

ὅτι οὐ πολλοί. A substantival clause, in apposition to κλῆσιν as the part to the whole: they are to ‘behold their calling,’ specially noting these facts which characterized it. From ‘not many’ we may assume that in each case there were some: but 10:5 warns us against interpreting οὐ πολλοί as meaning more than ‘very few.’

κατὰ σἀρκα. This applies to δυνατοί and εὐγενεῖς as well as to σοφοί. Each of the three terms is capable of a higher sense, as εὐγενεῖς in Act 17:11; each may be taken either (1) as a predicate, ‘not many of the called were wise,’ etc.; or (2) as belonging to the subject, the predicate being understood, ‘not many wise had part therein’; or (3) like (2), but with a different predicate, ‘not many wise were called’ (AV., RV.). The last is best.

Some of the converts were persons of culture and position; Dionysius at Athens (Act 17:34), Erastus at Corinth (Rom 16:23), the ladies at Thessalonica and Beroea (Act 17:4, Act 17:12). But the names known to us (16:17; Rom_16.) are mostly suggestive of slaves or freedmen. Lightfoot refers to Just. Rev 2:9; Orig. Cels. 2:79.*

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Calling (klhsin). Not condition of life, but your calling by God; not depending on wisdom, power, or lineage.

Noble [ευγενεις] . Of high birth. So originally, though as Greece became democratic, it came to signify merely the better sort of freemen. Plato applies it to the children of native Athenians (" Menexenus, " 237).

Aeschylus makes Clytaemnestra say to the captive Cassandra that if slavery must befall one there is an advantage in having masters of ancient family property instead of those who have become unexpectedly rich (" Agamemnon, " 1010).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 26. “For see your calling, brethren, there are among you not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.”

This mode of recruiting the Church confirms the conclusion drawn above from the nature of the gospel. Hence the γάρ, in fact, which is certainly the true reading. It was not the leading classes of Corinthian society which had furnished the largest number of the members of the Church. The majority were poor, ignorant, slaves. God shows thereby that He has no need of human wisdom and power to support His work.

The verb βλέπετε should be taken as imperative and not as indicative: “Open your eyes, and see that...” This meaning is not incompatible with the γάρ. Meyer rightly quotes Sophocles, Phil. 5.1043: ἄφετε γὰρ αὐτόν.

Paul has come near to his readers in reminding them of this fact which touches them so closely; hence the address, — brethren! — The word κλῆσις, calling, has sometimes been taken in the sense wrongly given to the word vocation, as denoting social position. But this meaning is foreign to the New Testament. Paul would describe by it the manner in which God has proceeded in drawing this Church by the preaching of the gospel from the midst of the Corinthian population. Jesus had already indicated a similar dispensation in Israel, and had rendered homage to it: “Father, I thank Thee because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26). The fact was not therefore accidental; it belonged to the Divine plan. God did not wish that human wisdom should mix its alloy with His: the latter was to carry off victory alone. Meyer makes πολλοί, many, the subject, and σοφοί, wise, the attribute: “There are not many who are wise...mighty...” But in this sense the πολλοί must have been completed by the genitive ὑμῶν, of you. It is better simply to understand the verb ἔστε, “Ye are not many wise.”

In the adjunct κατὰ σάρκα, according to the flesh, the word flesh denotes, as it often does, human nature considered in itself, and apart from its relation to God. This adjunct has not been added to the two following terms, mighty...noble, because, as de Wette says, these latter obviously denote advantages of an earthly nature.

Οἱ δυνατοί, mighty, denotes persons in office; εὐγενεῖς, the noble, persons of high birth, descendants of ancient families.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.