Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Paul brings up this contrast between the wise and the foolish in the previous passage, and he continues it here. Paul previously said how even the foolishness of God is better than the wisest of humans, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (verse 25), meaning that we humans cannot even begin to compare to God in strength or wisdom!
Paul builds on that to address his audience. In verse 26, he recognizes that the believers of the church in Corinth were not exactly part of the top levels of society. They weren’t the influencers of the day or the intellectuals, and they weren’t even born into nobility. The words Paul uses there encompass anyone who would have been important socially, politically, or intellectually. These believers were just common, ordinary people. Many of us believers today fit that same description. We’re not famous or popular, and we’re not part of the elites in our society either. So while Paul is directly writing to those first-century believers in Corinth, he is speaking to us too!
But, the good news is that God chose us lowly people anyway! Verses 27-28 show more of these contrasts, and how God’s way goes against the ways of the cultures around us. God chose the ones who seem foolish or weak in order to shame the wise or the strong. God chose the ones who are lowly and despised people of society to show up those who consider themselves to be important. Even though the foolish, the weak, and the lowly are not chosen by society, they are chosen by God!
Jesus taught about this concept multiple times. One example is in Matthew 19:16-30 with the story of the rich young ruler. The man doesn’t follow Jesus because he can’t give up his earthly wealth. Jesus ends that narrative by saying, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (verse 30).
Immediately following that is Matthew 20:1-16, which tells of the parable of the vineyard workers. In that story, a man hires people throughout the day to work in his vineyard. At the end of the day, the owner pays them all the same – the ones who worked a full day earned the same as the ones who worked only a couple of hours. The owner finishes by saying that he has the right to do with his money as he wants. Jesus then follows that up by saying, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (verse 16).
Another example from Jesus’ teaching is in Luke 13:22-30. This is when Jesus is teaching about the narrow door to be saved, that there will be those who think they are first but will be last, and those who think they are last but will be first.
Paul is building on those teachings by Jesus, showing that the Christian faith is upside-down from the way the world typically thinks. Why is this the way things are for believers? “So that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:29). If we were chosen by God because of our earthly roles, then that would give us more cause to boast about who we are and what we have achieved. But if God chooses the weak and the lowly, then we can only boast about who God is and what God has done, not about our own accomplishments.
Paul emphasizes that face in verse 30, reminding believers that it is only because of God that we are in Christ Jesus. Through God, we have righteousness, holiness, and redemption. None of us are worthy of receiving the salvation that God gives us because all of us have broken God’s laws. We are all foolish, weak, and lowly in God’s sight – we are all sinners who are not worthy of His love. But it is only through the salvation brought to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection that we can be seen as holy and righteous in order to receive the redemption from sin that Jesus bought us!
Why is it important that we receive righteousness, holiness, and redemption? Righteousness is being brought into a right relationship with God, which allows us to be in good standing with Him. We mess up and ruin our relationship with God, but grace is there to restore it. Holiness is to be clean and pure, and God demands us to be holy to be in His presence. Jesus is willing to deal with our crap and replace it with holiness so we can be in God's presence. Redemption is being bought back. When we redeem something, it allows us to get something back. God needed to have a plan to get His creation back to Himself after the Fall into sin, and that plan is Jesus.
In verse 31, Paul references Jeremiah 9:24. For context, Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.” That passage from the prophet Jeremiah emphasizes that our only boasting should be in God, not in anything that we have done.
God did not choose us because of our status in our worldly societies. God chose us because we humans are nothing without Him, no matter our earthly position. We need to remember who God is and what He has done for us. We are not worthy to receive the salvation He gives us, but that is God’s grace at work. We do not deserve His love since we continually disobey Him, yet He continually loves us! That love is only because of who God is and what He has done, so we should never boast about ourselves or our own works but only boast on what God has done for us.
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