New · FreePlay The Witnesses The in-depth puzzle battle quest through Bible history
Back to all lyrics
Artwork for Christ the Power of God

1 Corinthians 1:1-2:16

Christ the Power of God

Lyrics · 1 Corinthians

Christ the Power of God

1 Corinthians 1:1-2:16

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the 1 Corinthians collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
1 Corinthians
Collection
1 Corinthians
Musical styles
Electronic
[Report from Corinth] One said Paul and another said Cephas, Another named Christ as a banner for pride. Was Christ divided or Paul crucified? Did any man's name give the water its right? [Verse I] The word of the cross looks foolish to dying, But power to the saved where the wise cease relying. The scribe and the disputant cannot command The wisdom of God through the strength of a man. [Chorus] We preach Christ crucified, A stumbling stone and foolishness named. But unto the called, both Jew and Greek, Christ is the power and wisdom of God. We preach Christ crucified, The weakness of God is stronger than men. [Verse II] Not many were mighty or noble by birth, God chose what was low to confound human worth. No flesh may glory before His face, For Christ is our wisdom, redemption, and grace. [Movement II] Paul did not enter with excellence of speech, But weakness and trembling beneath what he preached. Not enticing language that reason admired, But Spirit and power where faith was required. [Bridge] Eye has not seen and ear has not heard What God has prepared and revealed by the Spirit. The natural man cannot measure these things, But the mind of Christ judges what wisdom means. [Final Chorus] We preach Christ crucified, No party and teacher may stand in His place. The cross breaks the boasting and gathers one body, Held by the power and wisdom of God. [Coda] The church had many teachers, But only one crucified Lord.

Named in this songCorinthPaulCephasThe cross

About the passage

1 Corinthians 1: A divided church meets an undivided Christ

The Book of 1 Corinthians opens by refusing to let Corinth's failures become the first word about Corinth. Paul calls the congregation God's church, thanks God for gifts already present, and only then names the quarrel that has turned teachers into banners. The cure is not a better ranking of Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ. It is a crucified Christ who makes every normal measure of prestige look unstable. The same cross that seems foolish or weak by ordinary standards becomes God's wisdom and power, and the Corinthians themselves are exhibit A: not many arrived with the credentials their city would have prized. By the end of the chapter, boasting has nowhere left to stand except in the Lord. Division is therefore more than bad manners. It is a way of forgetting who called the church, who was crucified for it, and where its entire standing actually comes from.

Study 1 Corinthians 1 in depth

1 Corinthians 2: Wisdom that the cross reveals

Paul continues the argument about wisdom by recalling how little his arrival in Corinth resembled a polished display of intellectual mastery. The center was Jesus Christ crucified, and the messenger openly carried weakness, fear, and trembling. Yet Paul is not hostile to wisdom. He speaks of a wisdom belonging to God's purpose, hidden from rulers whose failure to recognize the Lord of glory was exposed in the crucifixion itself. What human perception could not discover has been revealed by the Spirit, who knows the deep things of God and communicates what God freely gives. The chapter therefore shifts the ground of discernment. Spiritual understanding is not an elite human faculty, a superior education, or immunity from criticism. It depends on God's self-disclosure and culminates in the mind of Christ. Corinth's claims to spiritual sophistication will soon be tested against something much less glamorous: the way its members treat one another.

Study 1 Corinthians 2 in depth