The libretto by the court poet Salomo Franck is related to the day's prescribed gospel reading, the testimony of John the Baptist.

Bach structured the music in six movements of alternating arias and recitatives, and scored it for a small ensemble of four vocal parts, oboe, strings and continuo.

The voices are combined only in the closing chorale, the fifth stanza of Elisabeth Cruciger's hymn "Herr Christ, der einig Gotts Sohn".

As concertmaster, he assumed the principal responsibility for composing new works, specifically cantatas for the Schlosskirche (palace church), on a monthly schedule.

[4] As in several other cantatas on words by Franck, it is scored for a small ensemble of four vocal soloists (soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B)), and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of oboe (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va), cello (Vc) and basso continuo (Bc) including bassoon.

[4] The music of the chorale is lost; it may have been noted in a simple setting on a separate sheet, as in the similar case of Nur jedem das Seine, BWV 163, composed four weeks earlier.

[6] John Eliot Gardiner, who conducted the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, describes the character of the movement of "insouciant grace and fleet-footed buoyancy befitting a slowish gigue or a French loure.

[4][12] The tenor recitative, "Willst du dich Gottes Kind und Christi Bruder nennen" (If you wish to be called God's child and Christ's brother),[1] contains extended arioso passages, to stress "der Christen Kron und Ehre" (the Christians' crown and glory) [1] and "Wälz ab die schweren Sündensteine" (back the heavy stones of sin).

[1] The voice and the continuo are at times set in imitation, an image for the Nachfolge (following), as they go together to express the unity achieved, on the words "daß er mit dir im Glauben sich vereine" (so that He may unite Himself to you in faith).

[4] The expressive declamation of the alto recitative, "Ich will, mein Gott, dir frei heraus bekennen" (I would freely confess to You, my God),[4] is highlighted by chords in the strings.

[4] A solo violin accents the alto aria, "Christi Glieder, ach bedenket" (Christ's members, ah, consider),[1] possibly inspired by the words "Christus gab zum neuen Kleide roten Purpur, weiße Seide" (Christ gave as new garments crimson robes, white silk).

[6] The musicologist Julian Mincham supports that, stating: "Bach seldom neglects opportunities of creating musical images of cleansing water when mention is made of the act of baptism.