Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 1:29
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
That no flesh – That no person; no class of people. The word flesh is often thus used to denote human beings. Mat 24:22; Luk 3:6; Joh 17:2; Act 2:17; 1Pe 1:24; etc.
Should glory – Should boast; Rom 3:27.
In his presence – Before him. That man should really have nothing of which to boast; but that the whole scheme should be adapted to humble and subdue him. On these verses we may observe:
(1) That it is to be expected that the great mass of Christian converts will be found among those who are of humble life – and it may be observed also, that true virtue and excellence; sincerity and amiableness; honesty and sincerity, are usually found there also.
(2) That while the mass of Christians are found there, there are also those of noble birth, and rank, and wealth, who become Christians. The aggregate of those who from elevated ranks and distinguished talents have become Christians, has not been small. It is sufficient to refer to such names as Pascal, and Bacon, and Boyle, and Newton, and Locke, and Hale, and Wilberforce, to show that religion can command the homage of the most illustrious genius and rank.
(3) The reasons why those of rank and wealth do not become Christians, are many and obvious:
- They are beset with special temptations.
- They are usually satisfied with rank, and wealth, and do not feel their need of a hope of heaven.
- They are surrounded with objects which flatter their vanity, which minister to their pride, and which throw them into the circle of alluring and tempting pleasures.
- They are drawn away from the means of grace and the places of prayer, by fashion, by business, by temptation.
- There is something about the pride of learning and philosophy, which usually makes those who possess it unwilling to sit at the feet of Christ; to acknowledge their dependence on any power; and to confess that they are poor, and needy, and blind, and naked before God.
(4) The gospel is designed to produce humility, and to place all people on a level in regard to salvation. There is no royal way to the favor of God. No monarch is saved because he is a monarch; no philosopher because he is a philosopher; no rich man because he is rich; no poor man because he is poor. All are placed on a level. All are to be saved in the same way. All are to become willing to give the entire glory to God. All are to acknowledge him as providing the plan, and as furnishing the grace that is needful for salvation. Gods design is to bring down the pride of man, and to produce everywhere a willingness to acknowledge him as the fountain of blessings and the God of all.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 29. That no flesh should glory] God does his mighty works in such a way as proves that though he may condescend to employ men as instruments, yet they have no part either in the contrivance or energy by which such works are performed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And God doth this in infinite wisdom, consulting his own honour and glory, that none might say, that God hath chosen them because they were nobler born, or in higher repute and esteem in the world, than others, but that the freeness of Divine grace might be seen in all Gods acts of grace.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. no flesh . . . gloryForthey who try to glory (boast) because of human greatness and wisdom,are “confounded” or put to shame (1Co1:27). Flesh, like “the flower of the field,” isbeautiful, but frail (Isa 40:6).
in his presenceWe areto glory not before Him, but in Him [BENGEL].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That no flesh should glory in his presence. That is, “in the presence of God”, as some copies, and the Arabic and Ethiopic versions read; not in their blood, birth, families, lineage, and natural descent; nor in their might, power, and dominion; nor in their riches, wealth, and substance; nor in their wisdom, learning, and parts: for however these may be gloried in before men, yet not before God. These are of no account with him, nor will they be regarded by him, or men on account of them; and he has taken a method in choosing and calling the reverse of these, to stain the glory of all flesh, that no man may attribute his salvation to any thing of the creature, but wholly to the sovereign grace and good pleasure of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
That no flesh should glory before God ( ). This is the further purpose expressed by for variety and appeals to God’s ultimate choice in all three instances. The first aorist middle of the old verb , to boast, brings out sharply that not a single boast is to be made. The papyri give numerous examples of as a preposition in the vernacular, from adjective –, in the eye of God. One should turn to 2Co 4:7 for Paul’s further statement about our having this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “That no flesh should glory.” (Greek hopos me kauches – etai pasa sarks) “So as not all or no (fleshly one) might be able to boast or gloat.” God’s initiative and pre-eminent choosing of persons and agents to perform His will and work in redemption renders vain any occasion for man’s boasting in Salvation, Rom 3:27.
2) “In his presence.” (Greek enopion tou theou) “In or before the face of God.” The vain Corinthians had been clamoring and boasting about the greatest minister, whether Paul, Cephas, Apollos, or Christ. Thus Paul wrote them this chiding rebuke. Psa 94:4; Pro 27:1; Pro 25:14; Jas 3:15; Eph 2:9.
IDOLATRY OF SELF
We have need to be redeemed from ourselves, as much as from the devil and the world. Learn to put out yourselves, and put in Christ for yourselves. I should make a good bargain, and give old for new, if I could turn out self, and substitute Christ my Lord in place of myself; to say, “Not I, but Christ; not my will, but Christ’s; not my lusts, not my credit, but Christ, Christ.”
-John Flavel,
6000 Windows for Sermons
SELF ESTEEM
The tombs about Alexandria contain the remains of once proud princes as well as the dust of plebeians. This has been taken out and sold as fertilizer, and is known in the trade as “Egyptian guano.” Four thousand years ago no pains or cost was spared to honor this dust now so dishonored.
-6000 Windows for Sermons
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
29. That no flesh should glory Though the term flesh here, and in many passages of Scripture, denotes all mankind, yet in this passage it carries with it a particular idea; for the Spirit, by speaking of mankind in terms of contempt, beats down their pride, as in Isa 31:3 — The Egyptian is flesh and not spirit It is a sentiment that is worthy to be kept in remembrance — that there is nothing left us in which we may justly glory. With this view he adds the expression in God’s presence For in the presence of the world many delight themselves for the moment in a false glorying, which, however, quickly vanishes like smoke. At the same time, by this expression all mankind are put to silence when they come into the presence of God; as Habakkuk says —
Let all flesh keep silence before God, (Hab 2:20.)
Let every thing, therefore, that is at all deserving of praise, be recognized as proceeding from God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
29. Flesh should glory Or, as it is in the more forcible Greek, that all flesh should glory not in his presence. For truly it is God on one side and all flesh on the other, arrayed in each other’s presence. It is the infinite Reality in comparison with the finite unreality. What, indeed, are the great men, great things, and great events of this world, but a phantasmagoria, gorgeous for a moment to the eye of sense, fleeting and false to the eye of the spirit?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 1:29 . Final aim, to which is subordinated the mediate aim expressed by the thrice-repeated . . [278]
. ] Hebraistic way of saying: that no man may boast himself . Its explanation lies in the fact that the negation belongs to the verb, not to . ( ): that every man may abstain from boasting himself . Comp Fritzsche, Diss. in 2 Cor. II. p. 24 f. Regarding as a designation of man in his weakness and imperfection as contrasted with God, see on Act 3:17 .
. . ] Rom 3:20 ; Luk 16:15 , al [280] No one is to come forth before God and boast, I am wise, etc.; on this account God has, by choosing the unwise, etc., brought to nought the wisdom and loftiness of men, so that the ground for the assertion of human excellences before God has been cut away.
[278] . . . .
[280] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.
Ver. 29. That no flesh ] Proud flesh will soon swell, if it have but anything to fasten on. The devil will also easily blow up such a blab.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
29. ] That all flesh may have no ground of boasting before God . The negative in these clauses goes with the verb , not with the adjective; so that each word retains its proper meaning.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 1:29 . God’s purposes in choosing the refuse of society are gathered up into the general and salutary design, revealed in Scripture (see parls.), “that so no flesh may glory in God’s presence” (a condens quotation) = (1Co 10:31 ). For , which carries to larger issue the intentions stated in the previous clauses, cf. 2Co 8:14 , 2Th 1:12 . Two Hebraisms, characteristic of the LXX, here: ( khl lo’ ), for ; and ( bsr ), for humanity in its mortality or sinfulness. Cf. , for this rule of Divine action, 2Co 12:9 f.; also Plato, Ion , 534 E, , .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
glory = boast. Greek. kauchaomai. See Rom 2:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
29.] That all flesh may have no ground of boasting before God. The negative in these clauses goes with the verb, not with the adjective; so that each word retains its proper meaning.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 1:29. , that not) The antithesis to, that, 1Co 1:31.- , all flesh) a suitable appellation; flesh is beautiful and yet frail, Isa 40:6.-, before) We may not glory before Him, but in Him.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 1:31, 1Co 4:7, 1Co 5:6, Psa 49:6, Isa 10:15, Jer 9:23, Rom 3:19, Rom 3:27, Rom 4:2, Rom 15:17, Eph 2:9
Reciprocal: Jdg 7:2 – Israel 2Ch 25:19 – to boast Psa 44:8 – In God Psa 105:3 – Glory Isa 2:11 – and the Lord Zec 4:10 – despised Mat 19:27 – what Luk 18:12 – fast 2Co 10:17 – General Gal 6:14 – that I Phi 3:3 – rejoice Col 3:11 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 1:29. No flesh should glory. The self-exalted accomplishments of fieshly man were to be stripped of their show of wisdom, and leave them without anything of which to boast.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 1:29. that no flesh should glory before God. This has been all along the design of God in the erection and growth of His kingdom of grace (Jer 9:23; Rom 3:27; Eph 2:8-9); and in the first conquests of the Gospel He kept this end specially in view. No doubt, when once gained to Christ, the rich, the mighty, and the noble were quite as ready to cast their crowns at His feet as the poorest, weakest, rudest of this world; and in doing so, they made a sacrifice proportionably nobler. But had the early converts been chiefly drawn from such influential classes, would not the triumphs of Christianity have been set down rather to the rank, power, and culture which it had contrived to draw within its pale than to the Divine power residing in and going along with the message itself? Now it was to preclude all such surmises that, by a Divine ordination, the bulk of the converts in every church and for a long time consisted of the despised classes, that none might have even a pretext for glorying before God.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 29. , that thus. This conjunction denotes the final end with a view to which all the preceding , that, indicated only means. The negative , according to a well-known Hebraism, applies to the verb only, and not at the same time to the subject all flesh; for Paul does not mean to say that some flesh at least should be able to glory. The word flesh is taken in the sense pointed out, 1Co 1:26. No man, considered in himself and in what he is by his own nature, can glory before God, who knows so well the nothingness of His creature. The words, all flesh, seem to go beyond the idea of the preceding propositions, where the question was merely of the humiliation of the wise and mighty. But is it not enough that these last be stripped of the right of glorying that the whole world may be so along with them, the weak and ignorant being already abased by their natural condition? As Hofmann says: The one party are humiliated because with all their wisdom and might, they have not obtained what it concerned them to reach, salvation; the other, because if they have obtained it, it is impossible for them to imagine that it is by their own natural resources that they have come to it.
The mode of the Divine calling, to which the apostle pointed the attention of his readers, 1Co 1:26, had two aspects: the first, the rejection of things wise and mighty; the second, the choice which had been made of things foolish and weak. The first of these two sides has been expounded, 1Co 1:26-29; the apostle now presents the second.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
that no flesh [no minister or other instrument of his] should glory [take pride in himself, and aspire to be head of a faction] before God. [The Corinthians in endeavoring to exalt their leaders were running counter to the counsels of God, who had rejected as his instruments all those who had worldly wisdom and power, and had chosen those utterly deficient in those things, that the triumph of his gospel might be manifestly due to his own power, and not to any excellency residing in the instruments or ministers whom he chanced to employ– 2Co 4:7]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
29. In order that no flesh may boast before God. God is jealous of His power, grace and glory, and is certain never to let the devil have it. Men in all ages, manipulated by Satan through human learning, native genius, noble birth, respectability, and money power, have done their utmost to usurp and appropriate the Church of God. They have girdled the globe with their mighty ecclesiasticisms, and resorted to every conceivable stratagem to take the Church of God and run it their own way. They have succeeded to a charm in their own estimation; but in every instance, just about the time of their triumph, God the Holy Ghost retreats away and leaves them the poor old ecclesiastical corpse, now an awful dead expense on their hands, as they have to keep it alive by electricity, and pour out a bushel of money for aromatics to keep down the intolerable fetid effluvia, and expend a princely fortune on plug hats, pigeon-tail coats, silk dresses, flowers, feathers, toothpick shoes, donkey socials, grab-bags, broom drills, ice-cream suppers, strawberry festivals, and Satanic fandangos ad captandum vulgus. Meanwhile they are thus sweeping along amid climacteric success in their own estimation; they are actually laughing-stocks for devils in Hell, who, as in the case of Dives, delight to lash them with firebrands while their carnal pastor is delivering over their coffins his eloquent and complimentary sermon, preaching them up to Heaven while devils in Hell are kicking them for footballs around the black walls of the pandemonium. While the devil thus girdles the globe with his fallen churches, passes himself for God and sweeps the proud, rich devotees into Hell in platoons, God the Holy Ghost, having quietly retreated away from the great, popular churches, is still carrying on His work among the meek and lowly, the foolish, the weak, the base-born, the despised, and the nobodies. Hallelujah!
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1:29 That no {z} flesh should glory in his presence.
(z) “Flesh” is often, as we see, taken for the whole man: and he uses this word “flesh” very well, to contrast the weak and miserable condition of man with the majesty of God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God has chosen this method so the glory might be His and His alone. How wrong then to glorify His messengers! Glorying here has the idea of putting one’s full confidence in some inappropriate object to secure ourselves.