1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 1.
The Wisdom of God and the Foolishness of Men. 1 Cor. 1, 17–31.
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.
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.