For consider your calling, brethren, that [there are] not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many high-born.
The Corinthians still admired human wisdom, power and rank. So Paul asks them to look around the room at each other and count how few of them had any of it.
They could check the fact by counting heads. Then Paul shows where the fact comes from: a choice God made.
The apostle tells the Corinthians to consider their calling, for they had not yet given up their old admiration of man's wisdom, power and rank. In the assembly of God before their eyes was the clearest evidence that not many were wise by worldly standards, not many powerful, not many of noble birth… But the apostle goes further. He shows that this is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part (vv. 27-29)… So plainly does God judge what so often captivates the heart of Christians. They love to count up the wise and the great of the world in their own ranks, as if anything of the sort could add glory to Christ.
God is not shutting the door on the educated. The cross asks every man to come down, and pride refuses.
It is God Himself who calls His saints. So why were there not many wise men, not many mighty, not many noble among them? Did God unfairly shut these people out? No indeed; at least some of them did believe the gospel… God does not condemn intelligence or human ability. But by the preaching of the cross He strikes the death-blow to man's pride and confidence in these things. Some refuse it for one reason only: it wounds their pride. They will not come down and admit that God is greater than themselves.
The wording leaves a door open, and some of the great have walked through it. But they leave their greatness at the door.
This world honours the wise according to the flesh, the mighty and the noble. But "God chose what is foolish in the world … what is weak … what is low and despised … even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor. 1:27-29). The few of the great in this world whom God has called take their place among the despised — not because of their greatness, but despite it.
Some read the verse backwards, as though hardship gave a head start with God. Commentators warn against that.
High birth, wide education and wealth all work to strengthen and develop what is natural in man. So it is true, and a sad truth, that these things stand against the gaining of divine knowledge. That knowledge must begin by bringing man to complete dependence on God. But on the other hand, poverty and ignorance are no natural introduction to a state of grace. "Wicked men of the rabble" are as ready to deny the truth as philosophic pride is to ignore it. At heart, man is the same at every level of culture or social position.
God's choice also shapes who He sends out to speak for Him.
God chooses to take up whomever He likes to do His work, and in fact He very often takes up very simple people… God will have a wonderful witness go out. But He will have that witness carried by His own witnesses, and His witnesses are for the most part the poor and feeble of this world. So in Acts 2 we read, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?" Galileans were the simple country folk of the day, and their leader Peter was an "uneducated, common" man. God may sometimes take up a rich man or a nobleman for some special work. But generally, as of old, so today, God's witnesses are chosen from the despised of this world.
Paul does not stop at emptying man of his boast. Verse 26 clears the ground for verse 30.
Yet such a negative conclusion, important as it may be, is not enough for the Spirit of God. He would lead the heart away from the emptiness of man's vanity or pride. He would lead it to real moral worth, to the provision of divine grace and holiness, and to a glory that will never pass away… "And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus." What a vast change of nature, position and relationships for anyone! How blessed for those whose wretched state in the world and in the flesh the apostle had just described plainly!
- Look. Paul does not argue; he points. The church at Corinth was itself the proof: God's calling ignores what impresses the world.
- Purpose. This is more than a fact about who responds. God planned it this way.
- Pride. God does not condemn intelligence or rank. The cross asks a man to come down and admit that God is greater. That is where pride refuses.
- Exceptions. God does call some of the great. They take their place among the despised — despite their greatness, never because of it.
- In Christ. Being nobody is no qualification either. Nobody boasts, and everything the believer now has comes from God: "because of Him you are in Christ Jesus."
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, that he may put to shame the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world, that he may put to shame the strong things;
Paul has just told the Corinthians that a crucified Christ looks foolish to the world. Now he turns the argument on them. Look at the church itself. Who did God call? And why did He pick the people the world overlooks?
Paul moves from a plain fact about the church to God's reason behind it.
The Corinthians still clung to their old admiration of man's wisdom and power and rank. So the apostle tells them to consider their calling. The assembly of God in front of them was the clearest evidence: not many of them were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many high-born... But the apostle goes further and shows that it is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part (vv. 27-29)... His judgment is clear on the thing that always tends to capture the hearts of Christians. They love to count up the wise and the world's grandeur in their own ranks, as if anything of the sort could add glory to Christ. Did not God choose the lowly and despised things of the world... so that no flesh might boast in the sight of God?
The choice is not random. It matches the message Paul preached. That message had already set aside every human advantage, religious or intellectual.
The apostle has set aside the religious flesh of the Jew and the intellectual flesh of the non-Jew. He did it by presenting the cross and the preaching of the cross. Now he sets aside the pride of the flesh by presenting the calling of God... So a blind beggar put the wise Pharisees to shame. Simple fishermen shamed the wise rulers of Israel so completely that they had to say, "What shall we do?"
The cross itself is the foolish thing at the heart of that message. God meant it to look shameful:
The world despises the cross; and God meant it to be a despicable thing — a gallows... There, on the basest thing in the world, He has hung salvation.
Does this mean God is against clever or capable people?
Did God shut such people out for no reason? No. At least some of them did believe the gospel... God does not condemn intelligence or human ability. But by the preaching of the cross He strikes the death-blow to man's pride and confidence in these things. Some refuse the cross because it hurts their pride. They will not come down and admit that God is really greater than they are.
This is not a new method. Israel's history is full of victories won by means that looked absurd.
God used something foolish to bring down the walls of Jericho: rams' horns, blown round a powerful fortress. The people marched round it for seven days, and the walls fell. God used weak things to rescue Israel and turn back the enemy armies: Shamgar's ox-goad, Gideon's three hundred men, Samson's jawbone.
God does sometimes take up people the world values. But He breaks them first.
God uses two kinds of instruments to do His work. First, those who have no value in themselves... But He also takes up instruments which are of great value in the eyes of men and to themselves. People looked up to Saul of Tarsus. He was learned, religious, energetic and careful to do right. To all appearance he lacked nothing that God could use. Yet God lays hold of him, strikes him to the ground on the way to Damascus, and, so to speak, breaks the vessel to pieces. Then He says, Now I can use him.
God's choice of the foolish is not the end of the story. The same chapter says where their wisdom now comes from.
The very passage that tells us "God chose what is foolish in the world" at once adds, "because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God" (1 Cor. 1:27, 30). Sadly, our own imagined wisdom often stops us from benefiting from the wisdom from above — the wisdom of our Head. It is good for us to admit our foolishness and cast ourselves on the wisdom that is in Christ our Head. Then, however unintelligent we are by nature, He will give us wisdom for every detail of our life and service.
- Chosen, not accidental. Not many at Corinth were wise, powerful or high-born. That was not an accident. God chose it so that no one could boast before Him.
- Chosen to match the cross. God hung salvation on the most despised object in the world. He calls people the same way He saves, with nothing of human glory attached.
- Chosen, not because ability is bad. God does not condemn intelligence; He aims at the pride that refuses to admit He is greater than we are.
- Chosen through breaking. Sometimes God takes up someone the world admires. First He breaks their self-confidence, as He did with Saul of Tarsus.
- Chosen to receive. Those who admit their foolishness receive Christ as their wisdom, with guidance for every detail of life and service.
and the ignoble things of the world, and the despised, has God chosen, [and] things that are not, that he may annul the things that are;
God's choice at Corinth cut against every human scale of value. Why would He pick the low and the despised, and use such "nothings" to cancel the things everyone counts as real?
Paul is not just reporting who happened to believe. One writer marks the step from a plain fact about the Corinthians to a purpose in God.
The apostle goes further and shows that it is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part. He chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise men. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong things. This is how clearly He passes judgment on what always tends to capture the heart of Christians. They love to count the wise and the great people of the world in their own ranks, as if anything of that sort could add glory to Christ.
This is the extreme term in the verse. One writer names what God has already set aside.
As to "things which are not" (v. 28) … the apostle takes it as an extreme case in the whole scene of God in Christendom. God has brought to nothing all of heathenism and Judaism.
What is nothing to human reckoning is not nothing to God. His way of choosing matches the way He speaks and creates.
He "calls the things that are not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17). He chooses "things which are not" (1 Cor. 1:28). Things which are not to us, exist for Him.
The cancelling is not theory. The leaders who questioned the first preachers in Jerusalem found untrained men they could not answer.
They perceived that they were ignorant and unlearned men. But, though they despised them from the heart, they could not deny the plain evidence of miraculous power that backed their teaching. "Things which are not" began to shake the throne of present power. Pilate was afraid before the words of One who admitted that He was indeed a King, yet said His kingdom was not now of this world. And Felix trembled and Agrippa felt ashamed before Paul, a chosen servant and a minister of things unseen. For a time he broke down the stubborn wickedness of men who, if they thought of God at all, thought of Him only as someone like themselves. It belongs to God to "call the things that are not as though they were." In the same way, through the effective power of the heavenly calling, He makes present things nothing in the eyes of those who live on His word.
Men had already thrown every word in Paul's list at Jesus. The same writer traces each description back to Him.
In truth, all five of these descriptions belong first and chiefly to Christ. Though He was God's chosen and holy One, He was "despised and rejected by men."… "He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to Him?" "As for this man, we do not know where He comes from." These sayings show what worldly judgment thought of God's wisdom in human form, in its day of opportunity.… The "chosen of God and precious" was, and still is, the One rejected by the builders of this world.
The same principle reaches beyond who is saved.
Not only has God chosen such to be His saints, but also in His work He chooses such as His servants.
God's way of choosing leaves nothing to be proud of. One writer contrasts how we act with each other and how we stand in Christ's presence.
The flesh must glory in something — birth, riches, or intellect. But in the presence of God neither believer nor unbeliever can glory in these things. Sadly, in the presence of one another we may try to lift ourselves up by birth, riches, wisdom, or achievements. But in the presence of Christ we are ashamed of the very things we glory in before one another.
- Chosen — The low and despised in the Corinthian church were not there by accident. God chose them on purpose.
- Nothing — "Things that are not" is the extreme term in Paul's list. What counts as nothing to people is real to God, who calls the things that are not as though they were.
- Christ — Foolish, weak, low, despised, nothing — all five words fell on Jesus first. The builders of this world rejected the One God chose and prized.
- Shaking — Untrained men left the Jerusalem council with no answer. Pilate feared, Felix trembled, Agrippa felt ashamed. God makes present things look like nothing to those who live on His word.
- Silenced — Birth, wealth and intellect give no ground for boasting. In Christ's presence we are ashamed of the very things we parade before each other.
so that no flesh should boast before God.
God has just listed what He chose — the foolish, the weak, the low and despised — and now He gives His reason. It raises a question: why does God care so much about our boasting, and what may we still say in His presence?
The makeup of the church at Corinth was no accident. One writer separates what people could see from what God planned:
But the apostle goes further and shows that it is not only a fact among men (v. 26) but a purpose on God's part (vv. 27-29). He chose the foolish things of the world to put the wise men to shame. He chose the weak things of the world to put the strong things to shame. His judgment is clear on the very thing that always tends to capture the heart of Christians. They love to count up the wise and the grand people of the world in their own ranks, as if anything like that could add glory to Christ.
The words "in the presence of God" are the hinge of the verse. Boasting is not impossible everywhere — only there. (Older translations read "no flesh" where the ESV has "no human being.")
No flesh shall glory in the presence of God. It may boast outside. It may make its claims, glory in its resources and be proud of what it does, as long as no one thinks about God. But bring Him in, and in a moment it all withers — the boasting, the empty glory, the high claims, the self-satisfaction and the self-conceit.
The flesh must have something to glory in. What we mention about ourselves measures how close to Christ we are standing:
The flesh must glory in something — either birth or riches or intellect. But in the presence of God, neither believer nor unbeliever can glory in these things. Sadly, in front of one another we may try to lift ourselves up by birth, riches, wisdom or achievements. But in the presence of Christ we are ashamed of the very things we glory in before one another. We dare not mention them in His presence, except to condemn ourselves for glorying in them. To glory in them only shows how little we are in His presence.
How does God make boasting impossible? One writer points to the cross:
Verse 29 gives us one specific goal of God's sovereign calling and choosing. Boasting cannot live with grace. The cross withers nature to its very root, and leaves nothing for the flesh to boast about.
Jesus told of an older son who resented his father's welcome home for the runaway. One writer sees that pattern in every age:
The elder son has a natural claim; and religious people in every age have considered themselves in this position in relation to God — to a greater or lesser degree. But for this very reason God rejects them, "so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor. 1:29). It is surely no accident that Scripture always shows the elder son outside God's blessing. It is the sinner who admits his guilt, who has nothing to plead but what he finds in God Himself, who gets the blessing.
The same rule decides whom God uses. Gideon was hiding from Israel's enemies, the least in his father's house:
Such was the man that God visited and chose as His servant — a man who realised his utter weakness, and who said, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel?" This gives us a first great principle about the work of God in this world. God never asks what man can offer Him. The instruments He takes up to glorify Himself are the weak ones, who know their weakness (1 Cor. 1:27-29; 2 Cor. 12:9-10).
God does not only silence us. The next verses give us something better to say:
Flesh is completely set aside, and its wisdom is now written down as folly. No flesh is to boast in His presence: "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." Flesh cannot boast before Him. We are to boast in Him. But then the whole being of man in the flesh, morally speaking, has ended for the Christian. We are in Christ Jesus because of God, and Christ Jesus is made wisdom from God to us. That is the great subject here — and then righteousness, sanctification and final deliverance.
- Purpose. God's choice of the foolish and weak was not chance but design. Verse 29 states the goal He had in view.
- Presence. Boasting can live anywhere except in front of God — bring Him in, and the pretensions wither.
- Cross. Grace and boasting cannot share a room. The cross kills nature at the root, so the flesh has nothing left to boast about.
- Persons. Those with a claim, like the elder son, are shut out. The empty-handed sinner and the weak servant get the blessing and the work.
- Praise. God stops our mouth, then opens it on a better subject: we are in Christ Jesus, and the only boast left is in the Lord.
But of him are *ye* in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption;
Paul has just stripped away every ground for human pride. He has pointed to the cross, to the people God calls, and to the preaching He uses. Now he says what the believer is and has. The whole verse hangs on two phrases: where we are ("in Christ Jesus") and where it came from ("from God").
The verse opens with "because of him." Older translations read simply "of him," and the word points to origin. Everything the verse lists starts with God, not with us.
"Of him," that is of God, "are you in Christ Jesus." I am of God. And I have my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption from God, all in Christ. It comes from Him; it is not my thinking about Him. And so man is totally set aside, flesh is put down.
The four words are not a random list. Each one answers a specific damage sin has done.
Wisdom naturally comes first, because it is the point under discussion. We need it, for sin has plunged us into ignorance and folly. But sin has just as surely plunged us into guilt and condemnation, so we need righteousness. It has plunged us into contamination and corruption, so we need sanctification. And into bondage and slavery, so we need redemption. Redemption comes last, because it includes the final thing — the redemption of our bodies at the coming of the Lord.
So where does a believer go for wisdom? Not to any human teacher, and not to his own reasoning.
We may have very little wisdom of our own. Still, Christ is made to us wisdom. We need not turn for wisdom to philosophy, to wise men, or to our own imagined wisdom, for we have Christ. Christ, on the cross, has fully shown us our ruin and made God known in His love.
If righteousness is a thing Christ is for the believer, then its stability is His stability.
God has made Christ to the believer "wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). And if Christ is made righteousness to the believer, that righteousness is absolute and permanent, for Christ never changes.
Commentators differ on which side of sanctification this verse names. Some read it as the believer's settled standing, true of everyone in Christ:
Every true believer is sanctified. To each one it can be said, "because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." So if you are truly converted and "in Christ Jesus," you may call yourself sanctified as confidently as you call yourself redeemed.
Others place the verse alongside the ongoing work in daily life:
There is a practical work in us which is progressive. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Scriptures like this one have progressive sanctification in view.
Writers also warn against one mistake here. Some read the verse as a transfer of Christ's own holiness to our account:
Christ's holiness is not imputed. The only passage that can appear to resemble this teaching is 1 Corinthians 1:30, but imputation is not spoken of there. It is not possible to impute redemption. It is in Christ, and through Christ, that these are according to the will of God.
So one part of this list is still future. Yet we already hold it, and we can already see it in Christ.
Last of all, Christ is made to us redemption — "the complete deliverance from the effects of sin in our bodies." We are still waiting for it. We see this redemption already set forth in Christ; we have it now in Christ our Head; we wait for it to appear in ourselves.
The verse does not end in a list. The next words send all boasting in one direction.
We have everything in Christ, and nothing in man as such. So, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." The cross, the preaching of the cross, the call of God, and our position in Christ before God shut out the flesh completely.
- From God — the chain starts outside us: we are of God, and we are of God in Christ. Nothing here is our contribution.
- For folly, wisdom — sin left us ignorant. Christ on the cross shows us our ruin and makes God known in His love.
- For guilt, righteousness — Christ Himself is made this to us, and He never changes. So the standing is absolute and permanent.
- For corruption, sanctification — writers differ here. Some see our settled standing, others the Spirit's ongoing work. Neither one is a transfer of Christ's holiness to our record.
- For bondage, redemption — last on the list, because it reaches furthest. We hold it now in Christ our Head. We wait for it in our own bodies. Four supplies, one Person, and therefore one place left to boast.
that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in [the] Lord.
Paul ends a long argument about human pride by quoting an older scripture. He does not only silence boasting; he gives it a new object — the Lord Himself.
Everyone boasts in something. One writer traces the urge to the flesh, and shows where it collapses:
The flesh must boast in something — birth, or riches, or intelligence. But in God's presence neither believer nor unbeliever can boast in these things. In front of one another we may try to lift ourselves up by birth, riches, wisdom or achievements. But in the presence of Christ we feel ashamed of the very things we boast about to each other. We dare not mention them in His presence, except to condemn ourselves for boasting in them. To boast in them only shows how little we are in His presence.
The silence is not permanent. The mouth that had nothing to say for itself now has something to say — and someone to say it about:
We have seen, in verse 29, that the work of God silences boasting in the flesh. Now the lips open again for those who willingly bow the knee to Jesus, according to the faith of God's chosen people. For those who in Christ are already more than conquerors may boast. The revelation of God's glory as a Saviour leaves His true worshippers with little but praise. But their boast is Jesus.
Some readers get nervous at the very idea of a Christian boasting. One commentator answers that worry by pointing at who is giving the command:
How complete the blessing Christ has been made to us! And what a joy that we not only may but ought to boast in Him who has so ordered and given to us! Do devout souls call on us to beware of presumption? It is the apostle himself, on the strength of Jeremiah the prophet, who calls on the one who boasts to boast in the LORD. It is therefore not rash nor wrong, but a hallowed boast. We owe it to Him, and He deserves it of us.
Paul is quoting, not inventing. One writer shows the source, and the three boasts it cancels:
God has made Him everything to us, therefore our boasting is to be in Him. This quotation is from Jeremiah. Speaking of the sad state of Israel and its leaders, he said, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD" (9:23-24).
Boasting in the Lord rules other boasts out — even religious ones:
In what does this scripture ask us to boast? Certainly not in the state of the world! The state it is in now has made large numbers drop their old boasts about its progress. Nor do the inspired words quoted above encourage us to boast in the churches. The Spirit has pictured their declining state for us in Revelation 2 and 3, just as we see it today. Much less are we told to glory in ourselves, either naturally or spiritually.
The same writer applies this to boasting in people:
So he says, "Let no one boast in men" (1 Cor. 3:21). Why? Because we have the Lord Himself whom men crucified to boast in; and we belong to Him.
The verse does not ask for an empty heart. It supplies a better object for an appetite the heart already has:
Grace brought them all to glory in the Lord — to boast in Him! They had nothing in themselves to boast in. The heart needs something — or rather someone — a worthy object. So He is the One provided for that purpose. Anyone who boasts in people is not wise; and anyone who boasts in himself is a fool. The word boast sounds a little out of place at first. But this is the word the Spirit of Truth has used to build us up, and we do well to take hold of its force: "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." We have good reason to do so. We were once far from God, but now in Christ Jesus we have been brought near. Christ carried our sins and their judgment away on the cross, and has secured an eternal redemption and an eternal inheritance in glory for us.
- Silenced. Before God, nobody can boast in birth, money or brains. In Christ's presence those things only shame us.
- Reopened. God's work shuts the mouth, then opens it again — this time for praise, and the boast is Jesus.
- Grounded. Christ has been made everything to us, so boasting in Him is not presumption but a hallowed boast we owe Him.
- Written. Jeremiah said it first: not wisdom, might or riches, but knowing the Lord.
- Redirected. Not the world, not the churches, not ourselves, not other people. The heart needs a worthy object, and He is the One given: He brought us near and carried our sins away.