Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 1:28
He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian congregation to explain how divine selection operates contrary to human social hierarchies. He writes this immediately after stating that God chose the foolish and weak to shame the wise and strong (1 Corinthians 1:27).
The words — The Greek term ἀγενῆ (agenē) literally means low-born, and ἐξουθενημένα (exouthenēmena) means despised. The text states that God actively selected these socially marginalized categories to accomplish His purpose.
The thread — This pattern of divine reversal appears in Job 34:24, where God shatters the mighty and sets up others in their place. It aligns with Isaiah 2:11, which declares that human pride will be humbled so that the Lord alone is exalted.
Why it lands — The text states that God’s selection of the lowly and despised nullifies worldly status to prevent human boasting. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on social or personal merit and recognize that all credit belongs to God alone.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
Cross-references
- Job 34:24 He shatters the mighty without inquiry and sets up others in their place.
- Romans 4:17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.
- Isaiah 2:11 The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
- Isaiah 41:12 You will seek them but will not find them. Those who wage war against you will come to nothing.
- Job 34:19 who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.
- Isaiah 17:13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.
- Psalms 37:35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Isaiah 2:17 So the pride of man will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,
- Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!
- Daniel 2:34 As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.