Let Them Consider Whom God Has Chosen And What He has Done For Them (1:26-31).
‘For look at your calling, brothers, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame those who are wise, and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are powerful. And the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are. That no flesh should glory before God.'
The themes of folly and weakness continue. He asks them to consider themselves. Not only did God reveal His power and wisdom through the cross, which was in man's eyes but weakness and folly, He also chose as His instruments those who were weak and foolish, that He might reveal through them His power and wisdom, making them powerful and wise in God's power and wisdom. Men found Him not by wisdom but by being called.
‘Look at (behold) your calling.' They have been called and chosen by God. Note the threefold stress on His choosing. But whom has the Great God called and chosen? He has chosen the weak and the foolish, the base and the despised, the things that count for nothing. The Galilean fishermen and the despised local tax-collector are the kind who make up His followers. And the same applies among the Corinthians. They too can look at their numbers and see that they are mainly made up, not of those recognised as ‘wise', not of those who are influential, and aristocratic, not of the rulers of this world, but of slaves and of poor men, of artisans and labourers, with ‘the great' a comparative rarity among them (although there were quite a number of influential men). Thus God selects His army for the future and it reveals similarity with the cross, a picture of apparent weakness and folly. But it will overcome the world through God's power revealed through the cross.
The world sees His followers as foolish, but they will put the wise to shame. The world sees His followers as weak, but they will put the strong to shame. The mighty Roman Empire will wither and be no more, Greek culture will be displaced, but the people of God will go from strength to strength. They will in a sense replace both.
‘Has God chosen.' Again the theme of His sovereignty is apparent. He points out that the fact that the church is made up of the foolish and the weak, the base and the despised, is no accident. It is God's deliberate choice, God's working, so that men may recognise their rightful place in God's eyes, weak and foolish, base and despised, but loved and chosen.
Indeed it has always been so. In the Old Testament and especially in the Psalms those who sought God were seen as the ‘poor' and ‘humble'. Those terms were used to depict those who responded to God truly. For they were the ones most likely to listen to God and to look to God, and only those who took up their attitude of heart found life.
‘And the things that are not, to bring to nought the things that are.' In context this is comparing nonentities with the great and the wise. The Corinthian Christians are nothings, Paul is a nothing (note the almost contemptuous ‘things'), but it is through such as them that God will do His mighty work, revealing the great as not great, the wise as not wise, indeed as the true nonentities in relation to God's kingdom. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18)
‘That no flesh should glory (or ‘boast') before God.' The purpose in all this is that man might realise what he is, and not boast in the sight of God. That he might recognise that any glory or wisdom he has apart from God is as nothing. This is true of Jewish Rabbis, of Greek philosophers and of Christian preachers. It is true of men of power and men of wealth. It is true of the rulers of this world. It is true of all. Men may seem to achieve much but unless God applies the word, the effective power that brings about His purposes, what they do is in the long run in vain. Their work is only temporal. And the only ‘word' He sends forth to do His work is the word of the cross. Thus none can have cause to glory for to succeed they are totally dependent on God for their efforts and their preaching and their teaching to be effective, and if it is effective it will not be through their wisdom but through the power at work through the cross. And in the end there is nothing else to glory in.