The passage
      v26. "Look at the make-up of your church" Paul exclaims, "a bit of a rag-tag group, isn't it?" Such proves Paul's point, "not only that God's standards and terms of reference (wisdom) are other than those accepted by the world, but also that he is now engaged in overthrowing the world's false standards", C.K. Barrett.
      v27. The weak and foolish nature of the gospel gathers weak and foolish people. Yet, God has a purpose in this. God's intention is to expose the lack of substance in the wisdom of the world.
      v28. Through the wisdom of the gospel God gathers a people to himself, a people the world counts as "lowly things" (base) and "despised". Yet, the church validates God's wisdom and will one day become God's complete and glorified new creation.
      v29. This weak and despised creation (the church) is completely of God's making "that no one might boast before him" (glory in his presence), i.e. that no one may claim that the church is the creation of charismatic human leaders or worldly programmes and systems.
      v30. As for the individual members of the church, each possesses an eternal relationship with God, not by their own actions, or the actions of gifted leaders in the church, but simply through their personal relationship with Christ. Being "in Christ" (identifying with Christ through faith) relates us to God. Paul goes on to list what Christ, as God's gift to humanity, means to the individual believer.
      v31. If we have nothing to enable us to stand before God, other than the riches we possess in Christ, then let our "boast" (glory) be in the Lord. The quote comes from Jeremiah 9:24. The point is simple, no believer can boast of any achievement (human wisdom, oratory, abilities, congregational success) since all that we are in the sight of God comes from Christ and him alone. Let us therefore, glory in him.

What Christ means to us
      A minister once suggested from the pulpit that the reason there are more women in church than men, is because the Lord calls the foolish to confound the wise, the weak to overcome the strong. Of course, we could also argue that the reason male ministry is dominant in the church is that the Lord calls the foolish to confound the wise, and the weak to overcome the strong.
      In first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30, the apostle Paul describes four substantial qualities that are ours through our relationship with Jesus. Because we believe in Jesus there is a sense where we are united with him and so share qualities which are rightly his.
      Jesus is our wisdom. It is difficult to know exactly how Paul's readers understood wisdom. They were certainly into it and saw it as something special. At the base level it is intellectualism, communicated through great oratory. For the Jews, it is a personified figure - that which relates us to God. For Paul, true wisdom is not found in eloquence or intellectual speculation, but in God's plan for broken humanity, realized through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The next three qualities illustrate the substance of this wisdom.
      Jesus is our righteousness. Standing right (approved) in the sight of God is the only way we can enter into his presence and commune (fellowship) with him for eternity. Through faith in Christ we are counted as possessing righteousness. That is, God does not view our sinfulness, but rather Christ's righteousness. Christ himself becomes our righteousness, 2Cor.5:21.
      Jesus is our sanctification. We can only come near to God if we are holy, Heb.12:14. Again, it is through faith in Christ that we possess a holiness which is not our own, but which is ours in Christ. Christ's holiness becomes ours when we put our trust in him. Yet, note that sometimes Paul uses the word holiness/sanctification to describe the business of being the moral, right, holy person we are already in Christ. Central to Paul's understanding of being what we are, of living as eternal inheritors of the holiness of Christ (albeit imperfectly), is that Christ-likeness is not realized by works of the law, but by grace through faith.
      Christ is our redemption. Freedom, and all that it entails (including, wisdom, righteousness and sanctification) was purchased on our behalf through the payment of Christ's life.

v27
      exelexato (eklegomai) "chose" - Paul's use of the words "called" and "chose" can be very misleading. Those who take a Calvinist line see in Paul's words an effectual call, i.e., God selecting particularly weak people for salvation. Yet, this is most likely not the meaning. In his sovereign will, God determines to gather a people to himself through the family of Abraham, even though as a family and later as a nation, weakness is its constant mark. Those who attach themselves to this "called" and "chosen" people share in the blessing of salvation. In the same way, those who attach themselves to the one true Israelite, "called" and "chosen", the crucified one, the "man of sorrows", are similarly saved. In him they become the "called" and "chosen" ones, and like him they tend to be lacking of this world's glory.
      iJna + subj. "to" - that. Introducing a purpose clause, telling us why God chose. Two other purpose clauses follow.

v28
      agenh (hV) "lowly things" - insignificant, base.
      ta mh onta "the things that are not" - the things not being. The First World War phrase "he aught to be shot and his cloths burnt", usually referring to a mate who has done something stupid, carries the sense of those who should not even be recognized as existing. For Paul, such people find hope in Christ.

v29
      oJpwV mh "so that no [one]" - lest [anyone may boast]. Introducing a negated purpose clause, this time identifying God's eternal purpose in calling a people to himself, rather than the immediate purpose of the three preceding hina clauses.
      kauchshtai pasa sarx "no one may boast" - [so that] all flesh may [not] boast. A rather awkward way of putting it, but influenced by the Hebrew idea, "all flesh" = humanity.

v30
      ex autou "it is because of him" - of him. The preposition + gen. may be read to convey the grounds of the Corinthians present advantage "in Christ", as in the NIV, or the source, as in the RSV/NRSV, "he is the source of your life in Christ."
      de "-" - but [of him (God) you are in Christ]. The NIV has not translated the adversive de, "but" ("but as far as you are concerned"), which serves to emphasize the contrast that the following words have with the preceding words. As for the Corinthian believers, the present privileged position that they possess in their relationship with Christ is totally of God's doing.
      en Cristw/ Ihsou "in Christ Jesus" - Always a difficult phrase since it can mean different things in different contexts. A locative sense (incorporation in) is to be preferred and that in relational terms. Because of our relationship in/with (in association with) Christ, we are saved. An instrumental sense is another possibility. In/by (by what Christ has done) we are saved. The point here, of course, is that God is the agent acting through Christ.
      sofia hJmin apo qeou "[who has become] for us wisdom from God" - wisdom for/to us from God. The verse is often read as if God uses Christ to be a channel by which the believer becomes wise, righteous, holy and redeemed, but the text is not saying this. God has made Christ to possess wisdom on our behalf. He possesses the wisdom of God and in it is by means of our association with him that we are counted as possessing this wisdom.
      dikaiosunh (h) "righteousness" - The three nouns, "righteousness, holiness and redemption", stand in apposition to the noun "wisdom", and describe different aspects of this "wisdom". Possibly either "righteousness", in the sense of Christ's ethical adherence to the law of God, which obedience is ours "in Christ", by grace through faith, or "justification", in the sense of Christ's right standing / approval in the sight of God, which approval is ours "in Christ", by grace through faith.
      aJgiasmoV (oV) "holiness" - Used in a religious sense; purity, sanctification.
      apolutrwsiV (iV ewV) "redemption" - release from captivity. Jesus is the redeemed / saved / released remnant of Israel, and through our association with him we share in this salvation.