1 Corinthians 1:26

26. Ye see Rather, in the imperative, Behold, contemplate your calling.

Your calling Not, says Wordsworth, “ την κλησιν υμετεραν your calling; but την κλησιν υμων , the calling of you.” That is, God’s calling of you into the kingdom of Christ, implying your acceptance and all its blessed results.

Not many wise Why were not many sophoi called? Because the pride of their sophia was in the way. They were called, indeed; but they never, by faith, became the called. They were called to repentance and faith; but never were the called, upon repentance and faith, to be saints.

How their sophia was in the way we see in the case of Gallio, the philosopher, at this very Corinth. Acts 18:12-17, where see notes. Christianity, brought before him by our illustrious apostle, was repudiated even from examination by antecedent contempt, as a mere matter “of words and names.” He heard of it with nervous impatience, and dismissed it with unmannerly abruptness. What was true in Corinth was true on a larger scale in the whole Roman world. The sages of the age of Tacitus, Seneca, Pliny, and hundreds of lesser literati and philosophers, deemed Christianity unentitled to investigation. And yet, according to the skeptical historian Lecky, and others, of the same school, the true cause of the triumph of Christianity in the Roman empire was not miracles, but the obvious superiority of Christianity over all rival systems of religion.

Not many mighty Few statesmen, warriors, princes. The government of the Roman empire, civil and military, was a stupendous system, at the head of which was Nero, a butcher and a fiddler. Ecclesiastically it was paganism, with Capitoline Jupiter at its head. Politically and ecclesiastically it was a sham, destined in due time to go down to ruin.

Not many noble Ancient Corinth was celebrated for its brilliant, high-born, old nobility. Its great, ancient families, now extinct, were instances how transient are all earthly grandeurs. But of the new and rather vulgar aristocracy of modern Corinth, restored from the conflagration inflicted by Mummius, probably few deigned to enter the house of Justus, near the synagogue, where Paul held forth the foolishness of preaching to busy Corinth. Slaves, artisans, and a few of the higher class, in whom religious interest overcame the pride of rank, received the holy truth.