1 Corinthians 1:26

For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

Many of the earliest Christians were slaves, a majority were poor, most were uneducated; and few of them had any claim to distinction in the wretched world of their day; but they were the roots from which all that is holy and beautiful has blossomed in succeeding centuries. In their achievements through faith in Christ one reads the pattern of many wonderful things which have happened in America. As Emma Lazarus' poem on the Statue of Liberty reads:

Your wretched refuse of all lands - your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, Homeless and rejected, send them to me. I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door!

How those rejected ones have blessed the world! but this is only a feeble parable of what Christianity did on a cosmic scale. As Barclay put it, "Christianity was and still is literally the most uplifting thing in the whole universe."[23]

Look at that congregation in Corinth, rescued from the dens of vice and debauchery, gleaned from the dregs of a cruel and heartless society, recruited from the hopeless ranks of slaves, delivered from the treadmills of commerce and industry; but Christ redeemed them, named upon them the eternal name, announced from heaven the plenary discharge of their sins, and made them partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Thank God for the church at Corinth and everywhere.

However, it should be kept in mind that Christianity was not denied to the noble, the mighty, and the wise; for Paul did not say that "none" of what might be called the higher echelons of society were called. Indeed, the truly wise, the really noble, also received the Lord, despite the tragedy of many failing to do so.

The treasurer of Queen Candace became a Christian (Acts 8:27).

The proconsul of Crete, Sergius Paulus, accepted the gospel (Acts 13:6-12).

Dionysius the Areopagite, a mighty judge at Athens, believed (Acts 17:34).

Crispus and Sosthenes were both rulers of a synagogue when they obeyed the gospel (Acts 18:8,17).

Erastus, Chamberlain of the City of Corinth, became a Christian (Romans 16:23).

Many women of the nobility in Thessalonica and Berea accepted the truth (Acts 17:4,12).

Such examples as these, however, were the exception, the vast majority of the Christians, at first, coming from the ranks of earth's unfortunate and poor.