1 Corinthians 1:28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And base things— And mean things. In this and the preceding verse, though the Apostle makes use of the neuter gender, which occasioned our translators to insert the word things, yet it is evident from the context, that he means persons; and if the word things were omitted, the sense would be more plain. By the things which are not, may be understood the Gentiles, who were not the visible people of God, and were counted as nothing by the Jews. By the foolish and weak things, that is, by simple, illiterate, and mean men, God would make ashamed the learned philosophers and great men of the age; and by the things which are not, he would abolish the things that are, as in effect he did abolish the Jewish church by the Christian; taking in the Gentiles to be his visible people, in the place of the rejected Jews, who till then were his visible people. St. Paul mentions this here, notby chance, but pursuant to his main design, to stop their glorying in their false apostle, who was a Jew; by shewing that whatever that head of the faction might claim under that pretence, as it is plain he did stand upon it, (see 2 Corinthians 11:21-22.) he had not the least title to any esteem or respect upon that account; since the Jewish nation were laid aside, and God had chosen the Gentiles to take their place, and to be his church and people instead of them. See on ch. 1 Corinthians 2:6, Deuteronomy 32:21, Isaiah 40:17 and Whitby.