📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 15:24
What does 1 Corinthians 15:24 mean?
"Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power."
— 1 Corinthians 15:24 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
For, “He put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when he says, “All things are put in subjection”, it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
Explanation
1 Corinthians 15:24 speaks about the final stage of God's redemptive plan, the moment when history as we know it reaches its culmination. In plain language, the verse says that after everything has run its course, Christ will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father, having first brought an end to every other ruling power, authority, and force that has opposed God's reign. This is not a picture of defeat but of completion — Christ's mission, having accomplished everything it was meant to accomplish, reaches its intended goal.
The context is Paul's extended argument in 1 Corinthians 15 defending the resurrection of the dead. Some in the Corinthian church were denying that there would be a future bodily resurrection, and Paul spends the chapter showing why Christ's own resurrection guarantees the resurrection of believers. In verses 20-28, Paul lays out a sequence: Christ is raised first as the "firstfruits," then at his coming those who belong to him will be raised, and "then the end" — the point our verse addresses. Paul is writing to a congregation that needed to understand not just that resurrection happens, but how it fits into God's larger timeline, culminating in the full establishment of God's kingdom.
Theologically, this verse affirms Christ's present reign as risen and exalted Lord, a reign that is active but not yet final. Paul describes Christ currently subduing every hostile power — sin, death, and every force arrayed against God's purposes — until, as verse 25 says, "he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." Once that work is finished
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