<p>2:6 <i>We speak wisdom, however, among them that are mature</i>- Paul spoke only of Christ crucified (:2), and so the true wisdom was Him. The &quot;mature&quot; would perceive this. For we have just been told that God has made Christ to be &quot;wisdom&quot; for us (1 Cor. 1:30). The Corinthians needed exhortation to become &quot;mature&quot; (1 Cor. 14:20); maturity has been reached by some now (Phil. 3:15; Col. 4:12; Heb. 5:14; James 1:4) and yet in another sense it is yet future, when we attain the full measure of Christ's maturity (Eph. 4:13; Col. 1:28). The same Greek word is used in all these passages. The idea that faith is predicated upon encounter with Christ crucified will be struggled against, shot down as philosophically lacking, intellectually weak and so forth. But the paradox is that the mature will perceive it. When you reach 'Christ', the maturity that is Him, then we will understand that <i>all </i>is of Him and His cross.</p><p><i>Yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing- </i>The wisdom of this world and its &quot;princes&quot; (AV), its academics and philosophers and chat show hosts, is 'coming to nothing'. Paul has just used the same word in 1:28 of how the despised simple believers shall 'bring to nothing' what seems so smart and wise. The means by which the wise of this world shall be brought to nothing is through the simple believers. And the Greek tense used suggests that this is ongoing- the wise of this world are already &quot;coming to nothing&quot;. The world rulers are defined in :8 as those who crucified the Lord; Paul envisaged the overthrow of the Jewish system as being at the hands of the humble Christian believers, including the worldly Gentiles of Corinth. Things didn't work out that way because the Lord's return was delayed until our last days, but the principle remains the same.</p>