ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 15 v26

THE ALIENATED WILL. ORIGEN: For the destruction of the last enemy must be understood in this way: not that its substance which was made by God shall perish, but that the hostile purpose and will which proceeded not from God but from itself will come to an end. It will be destroyed, therefore, not in the sense of ceasing to exist but of being no longer an enemy and no longer death. … We must not think, however, that it will happen all of a sudden, but gradually and by degrees, during the lapse of infinite and immeasurable ages, seeing that the improvement and correction will be realized slowly and separately in each individual person. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.5.

“BE EXALTED IN THE BORDERS OF MY ENEMIES.” JEROME: As the psalmist pleads that God be glorified in the borders of his enemies, so do we. When they have ceased to be enemies, then you, O Lord, will be exalted among them. HOMILY 3 ON PSALM 7.

THE LAST ENEMY. CHRYSOSTOM: In the beginning death entered last, after the counsel of the devil and our disobedience. Similarly, death will be the last thing to be destroyed. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 39.6.

WITHOUT ADVERSARY. AUGUSTINE: It is one thing to fight well, which is the case now when the struggle of death is resisted. It is something else not to have an adversary, which will be the case when death “our last enemy” is destroyed. ON CONTINENCE 3.6.

THE MASTERY IN LOVE BY VISION. AUGUSTINE: The new life begins now by faith and is carried on by hope, but then will come the time when death shall be swallowed up in victory, when that “enemy, death, shall be destroyed last,” when we shall be changed and become like the angels. … We have now mastered fear by faith, but then we shall have the mastery in love by vision. LETTER 55, TO JANARIUS.

THEIR PRIZE IN PEACE, THEIR STRENGTH IN BATTLE. AUGUSTINE: In this house God’s people shall everlastingly dwell with their God and in their God, and God with his people and in his people, God filling his people, his people filled with God, so that “God may be all in all”—the very same God being their prize in peace who was their strength in battle. CITY OF GOD 17.12.

1 Cor