1 Corinthians 15:24

Then cometh the end The end, the completion, that is, of the present order of things, when sin and death cease to be, and -the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ," Revelation 11:15.

when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father The passage suggests to us the idea of a prince, the heir-apparent of the kingdom, going out to war, and bringing the spoils and trophies of his conquest to his father's feet. Such an idea must have recurred with fresh vividness to the minds of the early Christians a few years afterwards, when they saw Titus bringing the spoils of the holy city of the old covenant, the -figure of the true," to his father Vespasian, and must have led them to look forward with eager expectation to the time when types and shadows should have their end, and the kingdom be the Lord's, and He the governor among the people. At the Last Day, Christ as man shall receive the submission of all God's enemies, and then lay them, all His triumphs, all those whom He has delivered captive from the hand of the enemy, at His Father's feet. "Not," says Estius, "that Christ shall cease to reign," for -of His kingdom there shall be no end," St Luke 1:33 (cf. Daniel 7:14; Hebrews 1:8; Hebrews 2:8), but that He will, by laying all His conquests at His Father's feet, proclaim Him as the source of all authority and power. There were certain heretics, the followers of Marcellus of Ancyra, who taught that Christ's kingdom should come to an end, holding the error of the Sabellians that Christ was an emanation from the Father, and would be finally reabsorbed into the Father's personality. It is supposed that the words, "Whose kingdom shall have no end," were inserted in the Nicene Creed at the Council of Constantinople, a. d. 381, with a view to this error. The words, God, even the Father, are perhaps best translated into English by God the Father. So Tyndale renders.

when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power Put down, literally, brought to an end. See ch. 1 Corinthians 13:10. All rule, that is, all exercise of authoritysave his own; princehead, Wiclif; all authority, that is, the rightto exercise dominion; all power(virtus, Vulg.; vertu, Wiclif, see note on ch. 1 Corinthians 1:18), that is, all the inherent faculty of exercising authority. For earthly relations, such as those of father, magistrate, governor, prince, are but partial types and manifestations of the Divine Headship. Even Christ's Humanity is but the revelation and manifestation of the Being of God. But -when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." Such human relations shall cease, for they shall be no more needed. Cf. Colossians 2:10.