1 Corinthians 1:27-29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But God hath chosen the foolish things Or, supplying the word προσωπα, the foolish persons of the world. Such persons as are of little esteem in the world, for want of learning, parts, eloquence, and such other endowments as some have attained, and who are judged altogether unfit to teach others, especially the Greeks and Romans. To confound the wise To shame those who account themselves, and are accounted wise; and of whom the world is most ready to boast. In this passage the apostle imitates the contemptuous language in which the Greek philosophers, and men of learning, affected to speak of the Christian preachers: yet, as he does it in irony, he aggrandizes them. The first preachers of the gospel, as Bishop Newton observes, “were chiefly a few poor fishermen, of low parentage, of no learning or eloquence, of no reputation or authority, despised as Jews by the rest of mankind, and by the Jews as the meanest and worst of themselves. What improper instruments were these to contend with the prejudices of the world, the superstition of the people, the interests of the priests, the vanity of the philosophers, the pride of the rulers, the malice of the Jews, the learning of the Greeks, and the power of Rome!” But the weaker the instruments who converted the world, the greater was the display of the power of God by which they acted. See on 2 Corinthians 4:7. And the weak things of the world Persons who pretend to no extraordinary abilities or endowments; to confound Or shame; the things which are mighty Which, with all their boasted powers and qualifications, have never been able to work such a reformation among men, as these despised disciples of Jesus have been the means of effecting. And base things of the world Things accounted vile and despised, εξουθενημενα, set at naught; and things which are not Which are as little regarded, or as much overlooked, as if they had no being, and were below contempt itself; hath God chosen To be his instruments in renewing and saving mankind; to bring to naught To annihilate; things that are In the highest esteem, and that make the most illustrious figures among mankind. That no flesh A fit appellation; flesh is fair, but withering as grass; should glory in his presence That no human being might boast of any advantages or distinctions, or of any excellence in himself, as the cause of his being appointed an apostle, evangelist, or minister of Christ, and employed in preaching the gospel: and that none who are converted by the preaching of such, should consider their conversion as the effect of any human abilities, natural or acquired, but should be compelled to ascribe the glory of all to God.