Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 1:26

"For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, [are called]:" — 1 Corinthians 1:26 (ASV)

For you see your calling.—This is better as an imperative (as in 1 Corinthians 8:9; 1 Corinthians 10:18; 1 Corinthians 16:10): For see your calling.

The Apostle directs them to look at the facts regarding their own calling to Christianity. This serves as an illustration of the truth of what he has just written; namely, that although there were, perhaps, a few of high birth and education who were called and responded to that call, yet these are “not many.”

It has been well remarked, “the ancient Christians were, for the greater part, slaves and persons of humble rank; the whole history of the progress of the Church is in fact a gradual triumph of the unlearned over the learned, of the lowly over the great, until the emperor himself cast his crown at the foot of Christ’s cross” (Olshausen); or, as an English writer puts it, “Christianity with the irresistible might of its weakness shook the world.”