Origen · a new plain-English translation from the Greek and Latin
He says, ‘Whoever loses his soul in trying to save it will save it.’ The martyrs seek ‘to save their own’ and for that reason lose it, in order to save it. But those who ‘save their soul’ and do not ‘lose’ it, these ‘also lose it’ likewise ‘into gehenna.’ For this reason, ‘do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear rather him who is able to destroy the soul and the body
in gehenna.’ We have said this briefly, according to the powers of our understanding; but ‘the natural man does not receive the things that are of the Spirit,’ and therefore he cannot. ‘The natural body is sown, the body rises.’ Further, ‘he who clings to the Lord is one spirit’; therefore ‘he who is joined to the Lord,’ though he was natural, is through this transformed and ‘is one spirit,’
our soul as well, so that, clinging to the Lord, we may be transformed into one spirit. But also, when the Savior was asked by the Pharisees about the kingdom of God, ‘when it would come,’ he answered: ‘The kingdom does not arrive in a way that people can say: look, here it is, or look, there it is. For indeed, God's kingdom exists within you.’ The Savior does not tell everyone: ‘God's kingdom is present,’ since among sinners it is instead the kingdom of sin
and, without any ambiguity, either the kingdom of God rules in our heart, or that of sin. Hence, whether in what we do, or what we say, or what we think, let us consider more carefully, and then we shall see whether the rule of God reigns in us, or the rule of transgressions. Knowing this distinction to exist, the Apostle admonishes some, saying: ‘let not sin reign in your mortal body.’ If any of us
has the kingdom of God, he is ruled by it; if anyone is tormented by the burning of avarice, he is ruled by avarice. Further, he who is just has justice as his queen; he who is puffed up by the ambition of vainglory is ruled by popular favor. He who grieves, who dreads something, who loves, who desires — each of these things rules him, according as he is possessed by various disturbances. Knowing all this, and how many kinds of kingdoms there are, let us rise up
and let us pray to God that he may take from us the kingdom of the enemy, and that we may be able to be under the kingdom of God almighty, that is, under the kingdom of wisdom, peace, justice, and truth, all of which are understood in the only-begotten Son of God: to whom is glory and dominion for ages of ages. Amen.