1 Corinthians 2 · a question people ask
"We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown" (2:6). Who is the we of 2:6-16?
The chapter doesn't say. Before 2:6 it says I and my (2:1-4). From 2:6 on it says we: "But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery" (2:7), "But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit" (2:10), "But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God" (2:12), "We also speak these things" (2:13), and "But we have Christ’s mind." (2:16). It names no one in these verses, and these notes don't. Nor does the chapter say who "those who are full grown" (2:6) are.
The verses
“When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,”
“We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown, yet a wisdom not of this world nor of the rulers of this world who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,”
“But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
“But we received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.”