1 Corinthians 1:26
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called .
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): The city of Corinth had many noble families of high birth and quality, and abounded with learned philosophers and rich merchants; yet it was easy to be seen, how that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): State-chambers, cabinets, throne-rooms, and royal palaces are about as little frequented by Christ as the jungles and swamps of India by the cautious traveler. He frequents cottages far more often than regal residences, for there is no room for Jesus Christ in regal halls—Now, dear Friends, this unbelief has usually been the case throughout all ages among the great ones of the earth. In our Saviour’s day, they said, “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him?”
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): They were too well satisfied with themselves to see any need of a Saviour. The sneering criticism of these Pharisees has been repeated in every age.
C. H. SPURGEON: The Gospel has usually had a free course among the poor and among those who some call, “the lower orders,” though why they are said to be lower than others, I do not know, unless it is because the heavier and more valuable things generally sink to the bottom.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): That man, however, were an arrant fool, who would infer from this, that God has in this manner abased the glory of the flesh, in order that the great and noble might be shut out from the hope of salvation. There are some foolish persons that make this a pretext for not merely triumphing over the great, as if God had cast them off, but even despising them as far beneath them.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): We spoil, if not corrupt the apostle’s meaning, by adding “are called,” as if God did not send His Gospel to the wise, the powerful, and the noble, or did not will their salvation. The truth is, the Gospel has an equal call to all classes of men; but the wise, the mighty, and the noble, are too busy, or too sensual, to pay any attention to an invitation so spiritual and so Divine.
C. H. SPURGEON: It is true that Christ Himself said, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” yet the call of the Gospel is a universal call to all mankind. Wisdom truly says, “Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men,” Proverbs 8:4—but, Beloved, there is another call, a special, peculiar, personal, effectual call by which only the Lord’s chosen and redeemed people are called out from among the mass of men by whom they are surrounded.
A. W. PINK: The actual application of redemption commences with the effectual call of the Spirit, by which the elect are brought out of a state of nature into a state of grace.
C. H. SPURGEON: All who have heard the Gospel preached have been called to some extent. The Word of God calls every sinner to repent and trust the Saviour, but that call brings nobody to Christ unless it is accompanied by the special effectual call of the Holy Spirit. When that call is heard in the heart, then the heart responds! The general call of the Gospel is like the common “cluck” of the hen which she is always giving when her chickens are around her. But if there is any danger impending, then she gives a very peculiar call—quite different from the ordinary one—and the little chicks come running as fast as ever they can and hide for safety under her wings! That is the call we need—God’s peculiar and effectual call to His own!
A. W. PINK: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life,” John 10:27,28. This effectual call from God is heard by each of the “sheep” because they are given “ears to hear:” “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them,” Proverbs 20:12.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is easy to observe in those words the five links of that golden chain of God’s grace in our salvation: “my sheep,” there is election; “hear my voice,” there is vocation; “and I know them,” there is justification; “and they follow me,” there is sanctification; “and I give unto them eternal life,” there is glorification.
A. W. PINK: This effectual call comes to none but the sheep; the “goats” hear it not—“But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep,” John 10:26.
JOHN GILL: There have been, are, and will be, some that are rich, called by grace, brought into a Gospel church state, and are heirs of the kingdom of heaven; though these are but comparatively few.
C. H. SPURGEON: Zacchaeus was one who was the least likely to be saved because he was rich, Luke 19:2. But even here, Grace knows no distinction. The rich Zaccheus is called from the tree, verse 5. Down he comes and he is saved. I have thought it one of the greatest instances of God’s condescension that He can look down on man. But I will tell you there was a greater condescension than that when Christ looked up to see Zaccheus! For God to look down on His creatures—that is mercy—but for Christ so to humble Himself that He has to look up to one of His own creatures—that becomes mercy, indeed!
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): None, who come to Him, shall be cast out on account of their situation in life. None shall be excluded because they are poor and despised of men—nor shall honours or riches exclude their possessors from the Saviour, if they do not prevent them from coming to Him; for though not many mighty or noble are called, yet some are, and though hard, it is not impossible for a rich man to be saved.
JOHN GILL: The apostle does not say that there were none of the wise, the mighty, and noble called; for there were Crispus, and Sosthenes, rulers of the synagogue, and Gaius, a rich hospitable man, and Erastus the chamberlain of the city, and it may be some others of a like or better figure in life; but there were not many of them; instances of this kind are but a few recorded in the Scripture; as Joseph of Arimathea a rich counsellor, Paulus Sergius a Roman deputy, Dionysius the Areopagite, and some in Caesar’s palace; which shows that nobility, riches, and learning, as they do not at all contribute towards a man’s salvation, so neither can they hinder it where grace takes place.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Therefore there were some, though “not many.”
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Remember the Countess of Huntingdon? That earnest, devoted woman who lived in the days of Whitefield and the Wesleys, and who was such a help in spreading the gospel? She used to say that she was just going to heaven by the letter “M.” Had the word been “not any noble,” there would have been no hope for her, but the “M” took her in.
