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Direct Answer The transcript presents Constantine’s view as a state-centered understanding: God grants military victory and protects the empire if properly honored. The chapter itself does not directly compare this to Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom and the cross, but it strongly implies a tension because early Christianity’s “separation from the world” and willingness to suffer were central safeguards.

Support from Transcript:

• Constantine “genuinely believed that the Christian God had given him his victory.”
• He believed God would “now protect the Roman Empire as long as the emperors worshiped him and the Church was faithful to him.”
• Roman religion was a “public matter,” intertwined with state; “To offend the gods was a crime against the state.”
• Constantine began “showering blessings on the Church and its leaders” to secure God’s favor.
• Earlier Christians, by contrast, maintained “the Church’s separation from the world,” and persecution had refined them.