Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
Read Chapter 15
Basil the Great
AD 379
For us the end for which we do all things and toward which we hasten is the blessed life in the world to come.
The faithful deserve to be at his right hand. They will judge in company with the Lord. They will pass into eternal peace and joy, so that they are rightly said to be exalted, for through the Lord’s wondrous devotion they attain contemplation of the Lord himself.
Then cometh the end1. The end of the whole dispensation of Christ for the salvation of the human race, and it will consequently be the end of the age then existing, of time, of all generations, and all corruptions, and of the universe. So Anselm. For Christ is the end of the whole universe, and when those that He has chosen out of it are completed, then the universe will be ended also.
2. "The end" may, with Theodoret, be rendered "consummation," i.e, the general resurrection of all, even of the wicked, when all things will come to an end.
When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. The kingdom is the Church of the faithful and congregation of the elect; not as though God did not now reign over it, for Christ says: "The kingdom of God is within you" (S. Luke 17:21), but because sin has somewhat of power over it, because the devil, death, and cares that attack mortals are found in it. In other words, Then cometh the end when Christ shall have presented, and a...
Afterwards the end; i.e. after the general resurrection of all, will be the end of the world. Then Christ shall deliver up his kingdom, as to this world, over all men, over the devil and his apostate angels, signified by principalities and powers; not but that Christ, both as God and man, shall reign for all eternity, not only over his elect but over all creatures, having triumphed by his resurrection over the enemy of mankind, the devil, over sin, and over death, which is as it were the last enemy of his elect. At the general resurrection, Christ will present these elect to his heavenly Father, as the fruits of his victory over sin and death; and though as man he came to suffer and die, and was also made subject to his eternal Father, yet being God as well as man, he is Lord of all, and will make his faithful servants partakers of his glory in his heavenly kingdom. (Witham)
Then comes the end.
For when these shall have risen again, all things shall have an end, not as now when after Christ's resurrection things abide yet in suspense. Wherefore he added, at His coming, that you may learn that he is speaking of that time, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father; when He shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
6. Here, give heed to me carefully, and see that no part escape you of what I say. For our contest is with enemies : wherefore we first must practice the reductio ad absurdum which also Paul often does. Since in this way shall we find what they say most easy of detection. Let us ask them then first, what is the meaning of the saying, When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father? For if we take this just as it stands and not in a sense becoming Deity, He will not after this retain it. For he that has delivered up to another, ceases any longer to retain a thing himself. And not on...
What rule and power will Christ destroy? That of the angels? Of course not! That of the faithful? No. What rule is it then? That of the devils, about which he says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the principalities, the powers and the forces of darkness in this present age.
But it remains so firm and stable in its own state, notwithstanding the introduction into it of the Trinity, that the Son actually has to restore it entire to the Father; even as the apostle says in his epistle, concerning the very end of all: "When He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; for He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet; "
