John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 15:28

"And when all things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may be all in all." — 1 Corinthians 15:28 (ASV)

That God may be all in all. Will it be so in the Devil and wicked men also? By no means—unless perhaps we choose to take the verb "to be" as meaning, to be known, and openly beheld. In that case, the meaning will be: “For the present, as the Devil resists God, as wicked men confound and disturb the order which He has established, and as endless occasions of offense present themselves to our view, it does not clearly appear that God is all in all; but when Christ will have executed the judgment which has been committed to Him by the Father, and will have cast down Satan and all the wicked, the glory of God will be conspicuous in their destruction.

The same thing may also be said regarding powers that are sacred and lawful in their kind, for they, in a way, hinder God from being seen rightly by us in Himself. Then, on the other hand, God, holding the government of heaven and earth by Himself, and without any intermediary, will in that respect be all, and will consequently at last be so, not only in all persons but also in all creatures.

This is a pious interpretation, and since it corresponds sufficiently well with the Apostle’s design, I willingly embrace it. However, there would be nothing out of place in understanding it as referring exclusively to believers, in whom God has now begun His kingdom and will then perfect it, and in such a way that they will cling to Him completely.

Both meanings sufficiently refute, by themselves, the wicked frenzies of some who bring forward this passage as proof for them. Some imagine that God will be all in all in this respect: that all things will vanish and dissolve into nothing. Paul’s words, however, mean nothing but this: that all things will be brought back to God, as their sole beginning and end, so that they may be closely bound to Him.

Others infer from this that the Devil and all the wicked will be saved—as if God would not be altogether better known in the Devil’s destruction, than if He were to associate the Devil with Himself and make him one with Himself. We see then how impudently madmen of this sort twist this statement of Paul to maintain their blasphemies.