“And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”
The time has come; the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news — Jesus' programmatic announcement in four short declarations. The time (kairos) has been fulfilled: the appointed moment in God's redemptive calendar has arrived, not as the latest step in a series but as the culmination of the whole story. The kingdom of God has come near: not merely approaching but arriving, drawing close enough to touch. The two responses — repent and believe — are the double action the kingdom's arrival requires: turning from the old orientation (repentance) and embracing the new reality (belief). This verse is the Gospel of Mark in miniature — everything that follows is the demonstration that the kingdom has come and the call to respond.
Church Fathers on Mark 1:15
And to shew us that in persecutions we ought to retire, and not to await them; but when we fall into them, we must sustain them.
John being put in prison, fitly does the Lord begin to preach: wherefore there follows, 'Preaching the Gospel, &c.' For when the Law ceases, the Gospel arises in its steps.
When the shadow ceases, the truth comes on; first, John in prison, the Law in Judaea; then, Jesus in Galilee, Paul among the Gentiles preaching the Gospel of the kingdom. For to an earthly kingdom succeeds poverty, to the poverty of Christians is given an everlasting kingdom; but earthly honour is like the foam of water, or smoke, or sleep.
Read all 8 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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