First Corinthians 1:28 says that God deliberately picks people and things the world looks down on, the lowly, the despised, and even the nobodies, so that human pride ends up with nothing to stand on. Paul wrote it to the church in Corinth, a community where status, wisdom and social rank were prized, and he was reminding believers that God’s choices run against those values.
And God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nothing the things that are…
1 Corinthians 1:28 (WEB)
What 1 Corinthians 1:28 Means
The verse begins with God’s choosing. Paul is not describing what people happen to find useful. He is pointing to a pattern in how God acts: he selects the lowly, the despised, and the “things that are not,” meaning those who count for nothing in the eyes of the powerful. The purpose is stated plainly at the end, that God would “bring to nothing the things that are.” The things that look important to the world are the ones that God intends to make powerless.
Paul is not saying that God rejects the wise, the strong, or the well-born, or that poverty and low status earn God’s favor by themselves. The verse does not promise that every humble person will be prosperous or respected, and it does not treat contempt as a qualification. What it says is narrower and more radical: when God works, he often uses what the world discards, so that no one can credit the outcome to their own standing.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 1:28
First Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul, traditionally dated to the middle of the first century, to a church he had founded in the bustling Greek port city of Corinth. The congregation was divided by factions, by arguments over which teacher was superior, and by boasting about spiritual wisdom and social standing. Paul addresses those divisions directly, and this passage comes early in the letter as part of his argument against status-seeking.
The verses just before this one, 1 Corinthians 1:25 to 27, set up the contrast: God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and his weakness is stronger than human strength. Verse 28 continues that thought, and verses 29 to 31 explain the goal, that “no flesh should boast before God” and that anyone who boasts should boast in the Lord. Read in that setting, verse 28 is part of an argument for humility rooted in how God actually chooses people.
Key Phrases in 1 Corinthians 1:28
1 Corinthians 1:31
That, according as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”
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This verse completes Paul’s thought in the same passage. Having said God chose the lowly so that no one could boast, Paul concludes that the one who boasts should boast in the Lord. It shows that the purpose of God’s choosing is to direct all glory toward him.
James 2:5
Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
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James makes a similar point about God choosing the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of his kingdom. It reinforces that God’s pattern of choosing those the world overlooks is not unique to Paul but runs through the Scriptures.
A Short Prayer From 1 Corinthians 1:28
Lord, you chose what the world counts as foolish and weak, and you did it so that no one could take pride in their own standing before you. Free me from the habit of measuring myself and others by the world’s scale. Show me where I have looked down on people you have not overlooked, and give me a humble heart that boasts only in you. Let my life point to your grace rather than my own importance. Amen.
