Commentary on 1 Corinthians
Lecture 4
God’s choice of the weak
1:26 For see your vocation, brethren, that there are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. [n. 63]
1:27 But the foolish things of the world, God has chosen, that he may confound the wise: and the weak things of the world, God has chosen, that he may confound the strong. [n. 65]
1:28 And the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible, God has chosen, and things that are not, that he might bring to naught things that are: [n. 67]
1:29 That no flesh should glory in his sight. [n. 68]
1:30 But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and justice and sanctification and redemption: [n. 69]
1:31 That, as it is written: he who glories may glory in the Lord. [n. 72]
63. After showing that the method of teaching according to eloquent wisdom does not suit Christian doctrine by reason of its subject matter, the cross of Christ, the Apostle now shows that the same method is not suitable for Christian teaching by reason of the teachers: a parable is unseemly in the mouth of fools (Prov 26:7); a parable out of a fool’s mouth shall be rejected (Sir 20:22). Therefore, because the first teachers of the faith were not wise in carnal wisdom, it was not suitable for them to teach according to eloquent wisdom.
In regard to this he does two things.
First, he shows how the first teachers of the faith were not versed in carnal wisdom and suffered from a defect in human affairs;
second, how this defect was made up for them by Christ, at but of him are you.
As to the first he does three things.
First, he excludes worldly excellence from the first teachers of the faith;
second, he adds to their subjection in regard to the world, at but the foolish things of the world;
third, he assigns the reason, at that no flesh should glory.
64. He says, therefore: it has been stated that the foolishness of God is wiser than men (1 Cor 1:25), and you can consider this in your own life; for see, i.e., consider carefully, your vocation, brethren, i.e., how you were called: for you did not approach him by yourselves but you were called by him: whom he predestined he also called (Rom 8:30); he called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9).
But he urges them to ponder the manner of their calling by considering the ones by whom they were called, as Isaiah says: look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you (Isa 51:2).
From these ministers of our calling he first of all excludes wisdom when he says: that there are not many, of those by whom you were called, wise according to the flesh, i.e., in carnal and earthly wisdom: for this is not wisdom descending from above: but earthly, sensual, devilish (Jas 3:15); the children of Hagar also, who search after the wisdom that is of the earth (Bar 3:23). He says, not many, because some few had been instructed even in worldly wisdom, as he himself and Barnabas, or in the Old Testament Moses, of whom Acts says that he had been instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22).
Second, he excludes worldly power when he says, not many mighty, namely, according to the world; hence it is said: has any one of the rulers believed in him? (John 7:48) Where are the princes of nations? They are cut off and are gone down into hell (Bar 3:16, 19).
Third, he excludes lofty birth when he says, not many noble. Yet some of them were noble, as Paul himself, who said that he had been born in a Roman city (Acts 22:25), and others referred to in Romans: they are men of note among the apostles (Rom 16:7).
65. Then when he says, but the foolish things, he shows that they were lowly according to worldly standards. First, he shows that they lacked wisdom when he says, the foolish things of the world, i.e., those whom the world would consider foolish, God has chosen for the offices of preaching, namely, ignorant fisherman: understanding that they were illiterate and ignorant men, they wondered (Acts 4:13); where is the learned? Where is he who ponders the words of the law? (Isa 33:18). And this that he may confound the wise, i.e., those who trusted in the wisdom of the world, whereas they themselves did not know the truths revealed to the simple: you had hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes (Matt 11:25); where then are your wise men? Let them tell you what the Lord of hosts has purposed (Isa 19:12).
66. Second, he shows that they lacked power, saying, and the weak things of the world, i.e., men with no power in the world, such as peasants and plebeians, God has chosen for the office of preaching: I will deliver them into your hand by the servants of the governors of the districts (1 Kgs 20:13); and in Proverbs it says that wisdom has sent out her maids to call from the highest places in the town (Prov 9:3). Weakness is designated by both of these shortcomings in the first preachers; and this that he may confound the strong, i.e., the powerful of this world: the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the pride of men shall be brought low (Isa 2:17).
67. Third, he mentions a defect of nobility, about which three things can be considered.
First, a certain splendor of rank, which is implied in the word nobility. And against this he says, and the base things of the world, i.e., the things that are ignoble according to the world: you are honorable, but we without honor (1 Cor 4:10).
Second, about the nobility he considers the honor and reverence which is due to such people, and opposed to these he says, and the things that are contemptible, i.e., men looked down upon by the world, God has chosen for the office of preaching: we have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those round about us (Ps 79:4).
Third, the grand opinion men have of the nobility. Opposed to this he says, and things that are not, i.e., men who seem to be nothing in the world: the strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself (Job 30:2), has God chosen for the office of preaching. This he did that he might bring to naught things that are, i.e., those who seem to be something in this world: the Lord of hosts had purposed it, to defile the pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of the earth (Isa 23:9).
68. Then he reveals the cause of all this, saying: he has not chosen the great but the lowly, that no flesh should glory in his sight, i.e., that no one may glory in his own worldly greatness as compared with the Lord: let not the wise man glory in the wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches (Jer 9:23).
For inasmuch as God did not subject the world to his faith by employing the great ones of the world but the lowly ones, man cannot boast that the world was saved by employing worldly greatness. However, since it might appear that worldly greatness did not originate from God, if he never employed it for his purposes, God employed a few and later a great number of the worldly great for the office of preaching. Hence a Gloss says that if the faithful fisherman had not come first, the humble orator could not have come later. Furthermore, it pertains to God’s glory to draw the great of the world by means of the lowly.
69. Then when he says, but of him are you, he prevents the preachers of the faith, since they were not the worldly great but the lowly, from being regarded as contemptible, by showing how God supplied for their defects. In regard to this he does three things.
70. First, he indicates who deserves the honor for the world’s salvation, which was procured by the ministry of preaching. He says: you have been called not by the great of this world but by the lowly; consequently, your conversion should not be attributed to men but to God. In other words, but of him are you, i.e., by God’s power you are called in Christ Jesus, i.e., joined to him by grace: we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph 2:10).
71. Then he shows how God supplies for the deficiencies of his preachers by means of Christ: first, as to their lack of wisdom when he says, who, namely, Christ, is made unto us, who preach the faith, and by us unto all the faithful, wisdom, because by adhering to him who is the wisdom of God and by partaking of him through grace, we have been made wise; and this is our God, who gave Christ to us and drew us to him, as it says in John: no man can come to me, except the Father who has sent me draw him (John 6:44); this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of nations (Deut 4:6).
Second, as to their lack of power he says, and justice, which is called a breastplate because of its strength: he will put on righteousness as a breastplate (Wis 5:19). Now Christ is said to have been made righteousness for us, inasmuch as we are made righteous by faith, as it says in Romans: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Rom 3:22).
Third, as to their lack of nobility he says, and sanctification and redemption, for we are sanctified by Christ, inasmuch as it is through him that we are joined to God, in whom true nobility is found: those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed (1 Sam 2:30). Hence it is said: Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood (Heb 13:12). But he has been made our redemption, inasmuch as we have been redeemed by him from the slavery of sin, in which true baseness consists; hence it is said: you have redeemed me O Lord, faithful God (Ps 31:6).
72. Third, he assigns the cause of the above when he says, that, as it is written: he who glories may glory in the Lord, where our version has: in this let him glory, that he understands and knows me (Jer 9:24).
For he is saying: if man’s salvation does not spring from any human greatness but solely from God’s power, the glory belongs not to man but to God, as it says in a Psalm: not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to your name give glory (Ps 115:1); to him who gives me wisdom will I give glory (Sir 51:23).