Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 15:56
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church while concluding his argument about the resurrection in chapter 15. He places this statement immediately after quoting the rhetorical taunt against death and just before declaring the source of victory.
The words — κέντρον (kentron) means "sting," identifying the lethal mechanism that makes death fatal. ἁμαρτία (hamartia) translates as "sin," which the text explicitly names as that sting.
The thread — The connection between law, sin, and death echoes Romans 4:15 and Romans 6:23, while Galatians 3:10 reinforces the curse that follows failure to keep the law.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that sin, not biological decay, is what makes death lethal. It requires the reader to stop attributing spiritual defeat to mortality and instead address the law and sin as the actual mechanisms of condemnation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
Cross-references
- Romans 4:15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.
- Galatians 3:10 All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
- Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 7:5 For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
- John 8:24 That is why I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
- Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
- John 8:21 Again He said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”
- Romans 5:20 The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
- Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
- Romans 5:15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many!