But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming.(3) For, leaving out of account that kingdom concerning which He shall say in the end, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you,"(4)the Church could not now be called His kingdom or the kingdom of heaven unless His saints were even now reigning with Him, though in another and far different way; for to His saints He says, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world."(5)Certainly it is in this present time that the scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings forth from his treasure things new and old.
And from the Church those reapers shall gather out the tares which He suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He explains in the words "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the world.
The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all offenses."(1) Can He mean out of that kingdom in which are no offenses? Then it must be out of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered.So He says, "He that breaketh one of the least of these commandments, and teacheth men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven:
but he that doeth and teacheth thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."(2) He speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who does not perform the commandments which He teaches,--for "to break" means not to keep, not to perform,--and the man who does and teaches as He did; but the one He calls least, the other great.And He immediately adds, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,"--that is, the righteousness of those who break what they teach; for of the scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere says, "For they say and do not;"(3)--unless therefore, your righteousness exceed theirs that is, so that you do not break but rather do what you teach, "ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven."(4) We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter.Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her.Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven.Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him.For they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, "If ye be risen with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.Seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth."(5) Of such persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven.(6) In fine, they reign with Him who are so in His kingdom that they themselves are His kingdom.