Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.

10. For we must all appear ] Literally, be manifested, the same Greek word being used as in the next verse. A reason for what goes before. It is natural to try and please God when present with Him. But even when absent, Christians do not forget that He will judge them.

before the judgment seat of Christ ] Cf. Mat 25:31-46; Rom 14:10. Observe that ‘God’ is the word used in the latter passage, as though “the two ideas were convertible.” Stanley. The , or ‘judgment seat’ ( trone, Wiclif), is in Classical Greek the pulpit from which the orators addressed the assemblies. In the N. T. it is used of the judge’s seat, which in the Roman basilica or judgment hall was “a lofty seat, raised on an elevated platform, so that the figure of the judge must have been seen towering above the crowd which thronged the long nave of the building.” Stanley. This, he adds, was “the most august representation of justice which the world at that time, or perhaps ever, exhibited.”

the things done in his body) Literally, through the body. Wiclif’s translation is more literal, ‘ the propre thingis of the bodi, as he hath don.’ This is the reason why Christians are to strive during the present life to be pleasing to God. Their wages in the next world shall be according to their acts in this. Cf. Rom 2:5-10 ; 1Th 4:6; Judges 14, 15.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For we must – ( dei). It is proper, fit, necessary that we should all appear there. This fact, to which Paul now refers, is another reason why it was necessary to lead a holy life, and why Paul gave himself with so much diligence and self-denial to the arduous duties of his office. There is a necessity, or a fitness that we should appear there to give up our account, for we are here on trial: we are responsible moral agents; we are placed here to form characters for eternity. Before we receive our eternal allotment it is proper that we should render our account of the manner in which we have lived, and of the manner in which we have improved our talents and privileges. In the nature of things, it is proper that we should undergo a trial before we receive our reward, or before we are punished; and God has made it necessary and certain, by his direct and positive appointment, that we should stand at the bar of the final judge; see Rom 14:10.

All – Both Jews and Gentiles; old and young; bond and free; rich and poor; all of every class, and every age, and every nation. None shall escape by being unknown; none by virtue of their rank, or wealth; none because they have a character too pure to be judged. All shall be arranged in one vast assemblage, and with reference to their eternal doom; see Rev 20:12. Rosenmuller supposes that the apostle here alludes to an opinion that was common among the Jews that the Gentiles only would be exposed to severe judgments in the future world, and that the Jews would be saved as a matter of course. But the idea seems rather to be, that as the trial of the great day was the most important that man could undergo, and as all must give account there, Paul and his fellow-laborers devoted themselves to untiring diligence and fidelity that they might be accepted in that great day.

Appear – ( phanerothenai). This word properly means, to make apparent, manifest, known; to show openly, etc. Here it means that we must be manifest, or openly shown; that is, we must be seen there, and be publicly tried. We must not only stand there, but our character will be seen, our desert will be known, our trial will be public. All will be brought, from their graves, and from their places of concealment, and will be seen at the judgment-seat. The secret things of the heart and the life will all be made manifest and known.

The judgment-seat of Christ – The tribunal of Christ, who is appointed to be the judge of quick and dead; see the Joh 5:25 note; Act 10:42; Act 17:31 notes. Christ is appointed to judge the world; and for this purpose he will assemble it before him, and assign to all their eternal allotments; see Matt. 25.

That every one may receive – The word rendered may receive komisetai means properly to take care of, to provide for; and in the New Testament, to bear, to bring Luk 7:37; to acquire, to obtain, to receive. This is the sense here. Every individual shall take, receive, or bear away the appropriate reward for the transactions of this life of probation; see Eph 6:8; Col 3:25.

The things – The appropriate reward of the actions of this life. done in his body. Literally, the things by or through ( dia) the body. Tyndale renders it: the works of his body. The idea is, that every man shall receive an appropriate reward for the actions of this life. Observe here:

(1) That it is the works done in or through the body; not which the body itself has done. It is the mind, the man that has lived in the body, and acted by it, that is to be judged.

(2) It is to be for the deeds of this life; not for what is done after death. People are not to be brought into judgment for what they do after they die. All beyond the grave is either reward or punishment; it is not probation. The destiny is to be settled forever by what is done in this world of probation.

(3) It is to be for all the deeds done in the body; for all the thoughts, plans, purposes, words, as well as for all the outward actions of the man. All that has been thought or done must come into review, and man must give an account for all.

According to that he hath done – As an exact retribution for all that has been done. It is to be a suitable and proper recompence. The retribution is to be measured by what has been done in this life. Rewards shall be granted to the friends, and punishments to the foes of God, just in proportion to, or suitably to their deeds in this life. Every man shall receive just what, under all the circumstances, he ought to receive, and what will be impartial justice in the case. The judgment will be such that it will be capable of being seen to be right; and such as the universe at large, and as the individuals themselves will see ought to be rendered.

Whether it be good or bad – Whether the life has been good or evil. The good will have no wish to escape the trial; the evil will not be able. No power of wickedness, however great, will be able to escape from the trial of that day; no crime that has been concealed in this life will be concealed there; no transgressor of law who may have long escaped the punishment due to his sins, and who may have evaded all human tribunals, will be able to escape there.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

2Co 5:10

For we must all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ.

The judgment seat of Christ

The image here is the same as that in Rom 14:10, and the expression is peculiar to these two passages, being taken from the tribunal of the Roman magistrate as the most august representation of justice which the world then exhibited. The Berea was a lofty seat raised on an elevated platform, usually at the end of the Basilica, so that the figure of the judge must have been seen towering above the crowd which thronged the long nave of the building. So sacred and solemn did this seat and its platform appear in the eyes not only of the heathen, but of the Christian society of the Roman Empire, that when, two centuries later, the Basilica became the model of the Christian place of worship, the name of Berea (or tribunal) was transferred to the chair of the bishop, and this chair occupied in the apse the place of the judgment seat of the printer. The more usual figure for the Judgment is a throne (Mat 25:31; Rev 20:11; Dan 7:9). (Dean Stanley.)

The judgment seat of Christ

I. The necessity.

1. It must be so, for God hath decreed it, and reason enforceth it. But why? Not to discover anything to God, but–

(1) That grace may be glorified in and by the righteous (1Pe 1:13).

(2) That the wicked may be convinced of their sin and defect.

(3) That Gods justice may be cleared (Psa 51:4; Act 17:31).

2. It shall be so (Joh 5:28).

(1) Reason showeth that it may be, and argueth–

(a) From the nature of God. There is a God; that God is just, and it is agreeable to His justice that it should be well with them that do well, and ill with them that do evil. This does not appear so here; therefore there is a day when it shall be made conspicuous.

(b) From the providence of God. There are many judgments which are pledges of the general judgment, as the drowning of the old World, the burning of Sodom, the destruction of Jerusalem.

(c) From the feelings of conscience. After sin men are troubled, though there be none to call them to an account. Heathens are sensible of such a thing (Rom 1:32). Felix trembled at the mention of it (Act 24:25).

(2) Faith showeth that it shall be–

(a) From that revelation which God hath made in His Word (Mat 13:49-50; Joh 5:28-29; Heb 9:27; Rom 14:12; Mat 12:36-37; Rev 20:12; Jud 1:14).

(b) Christs interest is concerned in it–

(i) That the glory of His person may be seen. His first coming was obscure and without observation.

(ii.) That He may possess what He hath purchased (Heb 2:13).

(iii.) With respect to the wicked. It is part of His office to triumph over them in their final overthrow (Isa 45:23; Rom 14:10-11; Php 2:10).

(iv.) To require an account of things during His absence (Mat 25:1-46.; 1Ti 6:14; 2Th 1:8).

II. The universality. All mankind which ever were, are, and shall be. No age, no sex, no nation, nor dignity, nor power, nor wealth, nor greatness, can excuse us.

III. The judge.

1. How Christ comes to he the worlds judge, and with what agreeableness to reason this honour is put upon Him. To a judge there belong these four things–wisdom, justice, power, and authority.

(1) Wisdom is in Christ twofold–Divine and human. As Christ is God, His wisdom and His understanding are infinite (Heb 4:13). His human wisdom is such as doth far exceed the knowledge of all men and angels. When Christ was upon earth He could know whatever He would (Luk 8:45; Mat 9:3-4; Joh 2:23-25). Now, if Jesus was endowed with such an admirable wisdom even in the days of His flesh, what shall we think of Christ glorified?

(2) As there is a double knowledge in Christ, so there is also a double righteousness, the one that belongs to Him as God, the other as man, and both are exact and immutably perfect. His Divine nature is holiness itself (1Jn 1:5). And His human nature was so sanctified that it was impossible that He could sin in the days of His flesh, much more now glorified in heaven, and there will be use of both in the last judgment.

(3) His power (Mat 24:13).

(4) His authority.

IV. The manner of judging. We must so appear as to be made manifest.

1. To appear; that we must all appear, every individual person. Four things evince that.

(1) The wisdom and justice of the Judge. Such is His wisdom and perspicuity that not one sinner or sin can escape Him (Heb 4:13). It concerneth the Judge of the world to do right, which He cannot do unless all sins and persons be manifest to Him, that He may render to every one according to his deeds.

(2) The power, impartiality, and faithfulness of His ministers (Mat 24:31; Luk 16:22; Mat 13:39-41; Mat 13:49-50). There is a mixture unavoidable of good and bad in the Church, but then a perfect separation by the ministry of angels.

(3) The nature of the business requireth our appearance. Partly, because in a regular judgment no man can be judged in his absence, partly because we cannot appear by a proctor (Rom 14:12). Now we have an Advocate who appeareth for us (Heb 9:24); then the Judge will come to deal with every one in person.

(4) The ends of the judgment require our appearance.

(a) The conviction of the parties judged. God will go upon clear evidence, and they shall have a fair hearing (Mat 22:12; Jud 1:15).

(b) Satisfaction of the world in the righteousness and justice of Gods proceeding. When every person is arraigned and every work is manifest, it cleareth Gods justice in rewarding His own and in punishing the ungodly.

2. To be made manifest. Our persons must not only appear, but our hearts and ways be tried (Luk 12:2). The final doom shall repeal all the judgments of this life, and repair them abundantly; many things that are varnished with a fair gloss and pretence here shall then be found abominable, and many things disguised with an ill appearance to the world shall be found to be of God, approved (1Co 4:5). We shall be manifested–

(1) By the knowledge of the Judge. We may hide our sins from men, but not from God.

(2) The good angels may be produced as witnesses; they have an inspection over this lower world, are conversant about us in all our ways, and are conscious to our conversations (Psa 91:11; Ecc 5:6; Num 22:34; 1Ti 5:21; 1Co 11:10).

(3) Devils may accuse men in that day.

(4) The Word of God will be our accuser (Joh 5:45; Joh 12:48).

(5) The ministers of the gospel (Mat 24:14; cf. Mar 13:9; Mar 6:11; Mat 10:14-15).

(6) Conscience itself shall witness, and God will discover ourselves to ourselves, that we shall see the judgment is just. The books were opened (Rev 20:12), and one of these books is conscience, and though it be in the sinners keeping, yet it cannot be so defaced but our story will be legible enough, and forgotten sins will stare us in the face (Num 32:23).

(7) It will be made evident by the confession of offenders themselves. As their consciences will convince them, so their own tongues will accuse them, as Judas (Mat 27:4; see also Luk 19:12; Rom 2:15; Psa 64:8).

(8) Wicked men shall accuse one another. (T. Manton, D. D.)

The manifestation before the judgment seat of Christ

The language of the text conveys the idea of a manifestation rather than that of a mere presentment.

I. The tribunal of the last day will be the great final revealer of human character. There all deceptions will be at an end, and the inner life will make itself visible to the eyes of the assembled world. Now much of the popular notion of the day of judgment is drawn from the modes of procedure in our courts of law. We read in the Bible of a tribunal and a judge. Accordingly we find it believed that the destiny of the man, as in a human court of justice, remains uncertain and undecided until the sentence upon him is actually pronounced. But this theory will not bear a moments thoughtful consideration. The moment of our death is virtually the moment of the proclamation of our sentence. When the day of grace has closed and the soul and the body are divorced for a time, the spirit passes at once into a place of happiness or a place of woe. The happiness is not complete. The woe is not at the worst. Both are conditions of anticipation. But in both cases the condition is fixed and known. Then comes the day of resurrection. The body suddenly rises, but it rises that body that shall be. If the life which is to be manifested is a life with Christ and in Christ, the material frame will partake of the beauty and splendour of the appearance of the Judge who sits upon the throne. If, on the other hand, the man has not lived for Christ, the inward aversion from God will find expression in his outward appearance. It will be seen at once, beyond possibility of mistake, what the past has been. You drop a seed into the ground, and when you have done so it is an absolutely certain and settled thing what the future of the plant or the tree shall be. The seed-corn never produces a lily. The bulb of the lily never produces an oak. It is just so with ourselves. The great day of judgment determines nothing. It only makes visible and palpable what we really are.

II. In this world a process of self-manifestation is continually going on. The general opinion about a man as to the real tendency of his life is pretty sure to be the correct one. Let him go in and out amongst you, and the popular estimate of him may, generally speaking, be depended upon. You make no doubt, e.g., of the worldliness of certain person who is numbered amongst your acquaintance. But why? The man is respectable enough, a church-goer too, perhaps a communicant. You cannot put your finger upon anything and say it is absolutely faulty. No! But you have been acquainted with him for some time, and all this time he has been unconsciously manifesting himself. Little things have let you into the secret. Tones, glances, remarks, or the absence of remarks, have told you that there is a lack of spiritual life in the man. Now this process of self-manifestation, continually and inevitably going on now in all of us, comes to a culmination in the great day of judgment. What is in us comes out. If we have lived to self, it is known. If we have lived to Christ, it is known.

III. This view throws light on those passages which speak of men as being judged out of a book according to the things written therein. What is the record? I believe it to be the impression made upon the human memory by the various acts and thoughts and feelings of our lives upon earth. We are told with respect to some persons who had been recovered from drowning that, just before the state of unconsciousness came on, every event in their history, everything which they had thought, or said, or done, seemed to rise up again, and to be present to their minds in a moment of time. Wake up the memory as Eternity will wake it! And then the spectres of the past, of past neglect, of past indifference, past practical contempt of God, past rejection of the offers of Christ, come trooping in, and close round his soul, and refuse to depart. Oh, if he could only bathe his perturbed spirit in some Lethe, in some stream of forgetfulness, he might know comfort again! But they will not go. They cannot go. The books have been opened; the man has been manifested. He has seen himself. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)

Christ in judgment

I. The certainty of it. The Scriptures never say that it is something which may take place. Whatever else may fail or prosper, this will not touch the decree that has fixed one day beyond them all–the judgment. There is scarcely one human interest, institution, undertaking, of which we can predict the course for twenty-four hours; but far above all their chances, independent of them all, subject to no chance, no postponement, is the judgment. The whole framework of order in outward nature may be broken to pieces; the catastrophe will only make sure the fulfilment of the whole prophecy, and the inevitable end will be the judgment.

II. The universality of it. We must all appear. Here the individual sometimes escapes notice either by retiring from society, or by being lost in its crowd. There the one kind of concealment will be just as hopeless as the other. There will be room enough for all, and yet the personal soul of each, with its individual character, will stand out as sharply distinguished as if no other soul had ever been related to it, or shared its experience. There will be no excuse taken, and there will be no absence to be excused. Every name will be called–those that have been written in the Book of Life, and the names of those that have heard the gospel year after year, and yet would not turn to take the cross and follow Christ. Obscurity, insignificance, weakness, youth, poverty, ignorance–those natural extenuations that we so often plead for not taking up responsibilities here, will not keep any out there. Station and dignities and wealth will avail nothing to obtain an exemption or a substitution.

III. What is here kept hidden must come to light. We pray every Sunday to Him to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are hid. In that day this Searcher of our hearts will deal with us. Deception and concealment will have had their crafty way long enough. Masks will fall off. The cunning sagacity that has covered up the lurking passion, or the cool calculation, will lose its self-possession. Whatever wicked thing we hard been at most pains to conceal will be written out as with a pen of fire on our foreheads.

IV. The Judge is the Son of God and the Son of Man. Repeatedly Christ says that His work, while on earth, in His first coming, is not judgment. Here I judge no man. Here He ministers life; will we receive it? There, on His throne, all judgment is committed unto Him, because He is the Son of Man. He knows all mans infirmity, to have compassion; all mans sympathy with evil, to punish. It is not then the time of salvation. The time of salvation is now. (Bp. Huntington.)

On the general judgment

I. The certainty of judgment. Other events may be more or less doubtful. How often are the calamities which we dread, as well as the blessings which we hope for, and regard as almost within our grasp, alike arrested in their course towards us! Every thing, every event in human life is constantly subject to variation, and is deeply Stamped with the characters of uncertainty and change. The colour and features and substance of our lot may be modified, or be totally changed by a thousand precarious contingencies which we cannot provide against. How near were the Jews at one time to destruction! Their doom, both as to its time and its manner, was determined. The orders to kill were already despatched to all the provinces in which they dwelt. Their enemies were gathering themselves together to cut off the whole nation in one day. Haman has his gallows erected for Mordecai. Deliverance seems far off, and ruin unavoidable. The order to destroy the Jews is reversed. How many instances of a similar nature might easily be produced. None of us, in truth, can know the evil or the good that lies before him in life. It is altogether impossible for us to pretend to predict with certainty the issue of affairs, however penetrating our sagacity. But the day of judgment cannot be called a probable occurrence; it is fixed with a certainty over which human events can exercise no control whatever. The word of the Lord cannot be broken; the purposes of His heart never can be changed.

II. The universality of its extent, comprehending the whole human race.

III. We come now to consider the character of our judge. The Father, we are told, judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. God thus has not only made known to us, in His Word, that Christ shall judge the world, but has also given us an unquestionable proof that He shall do so by His resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Christ proves this, not only because it establishes the truth of the doctrine which He taught, and the declarations which He uttered, but also because His resurrection itself was the first step of His actual and visible advancement to that mediatorial government of which the solemnities of the general judgment shall form the triumphal close. It is, indeed, true that God is called the Judge of all the earth; and it is said that God shall judge the world in righteousness. But this is in perfect consistency with the usual language of Scripture, in which God is often said to do that Himself which He executes by another. There appears to be a peculiar fitness in Christs discharging the office of Judge of the human race. It was by Christ Jesus that the world was originally made; it was by Him that it was saved; it is by Him that its affairs are at present administered. Is there not a fitness that the same person who had conducted the scheme of mediation should also bring it to a close by openly acquitting His faithful followers? Is there not a fitness in the Judge being of the same nature with those whose conduct He shall try, and whose destiny He shall fix? Is not the triumph over Satan thus rendered more complete, or ai least more conspicuous? (A. Bullock, M. A.)

The certainty of a future judgment

I. There shall be such an appearance after this life as is here spoken of.

1. It is very agreeable to the nature of God. What can be more agreeable to the nature of the most pure and powerful agent than to draw unto itself whatsoever is like itself, as likewise to remove from itself whatsoever is unlike itself?

2. It is very agreeable to the nature of the soul of man, because otherwise the chief agent, both in good and evil, should have little or no reward for the one, and little or no punishment for the other.

3. It is necessary for the manifestation of the Divine justice: for though whatsoever God doth is just, and that because God does it, yet does it not always appear to be so. And hence it is that this general doom is called in Scripture the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

4. The strange disproportion betwixt actions and events, merits and rewards, mens parts and their fortune here in this life, cloth seem to require that there should be a day of an after-reckoning to rectify this (Ecc 9:2; Ecc 8:14; Ecc 7:15). This argument, from the seeming unequal distribution of things here below, was urged by the elder Pliny and some others to prove the non-existence of a God. And truly if my conclusions concerning the certainty of a judgment to come after this life were not true, this argument of theirs would shrewdly shake the foundation of all our creed, viz., the being of a God. But supposing such a judgment, we do at once vindicate the power, wisdom, justice, and consequently the very being of God from all contradiction.

5. There is an inborn and inbred notion and expectation which all men have by nature, that there will be a judgment. Whatsoever all men agree in is the voice of nature itself, and consequently must be true: for the dictates of nature are stronger than the probers of reason.

II. What manner of thing this judgment or last doom will be.

1. The Judge–Christ.

(1) He must be our judge as He is God–

(a) Because none but God has jurisdiction over all the parties that are to be tried at that judgment.

(b) Because none but omniscience can discern the main and principal things that shall be there called in question.

(c) Because none but God can give life and execution to the sentence pronounced.

(2) But though God only can be our judge, yet nevertheless He must be man likewise; and that–

(a) In regard of the judgment itself, to manifest the impartiality of it.

(b) In regard to the parties triable at that day. For among the just there is none so good but he might fairly be afraid to appear at that judgment if the Judge were not our Saviour. And as for the unjust, their condemnation pronounced by that Judge, who laid down His life to save sinners, and consequently cannot possibly be imagined to condemn any but such as would not be saved by Him.

(c) In regard of humanity itself–for the dignifying of human nature: that as the nature of man was debased to the lowest degree of meanness in the person of our Saviour, so the same nature, in the same person, might be exalted to so high a degree of power, majesty, and honour, that not only men that had despised Him, and devils that had tempted Him, but even the blessed angels themselves, whose comfort He once stood in need of, should fall down and tremble at His presence.

2. The parties to be judged; and those are all persons of all sorts.

3. The matters that shall be questioned; not our actions only, but our words, thoughts, inclinations, and dispositions.

4. The manner of proceeding. There will be no occasion for examination of witnesses, or reading depositions; for every man shall be indicted and cast or acquitted, by the testimony of his own conscience.

5. The sentence (Mat 25:34-41).

Conclusion: Let it be part of our daily business seriously to meditate upon–

1. The vanity and shortness of our lives.

2. The certainty and uncertainty of our deaths.

3. The great exactness and severity of the judgment to come after death.

4. The eternity of every mans condition in the other world, whether it be good or evil. (R. South, D. D.)

Human judgment the earnest of Divine

I. What is it which throws such an atmosphere of awe around human judgment? It is not the outward pageantry nor any accident in the administration of justice, but that justice is an attribute of God; that law is the representative of His majestic justice; that all justice here is an earnest of His Divine justice hereafter. The outward course of justice strikes a chord in an inward conscience. Conscience, of which even the Jews spoke under the title, the Accuser, tells us that we too are amenable to justice–if not to human, to Divine.

II. This thought it awakens alike, whether human justice comes quickly or slowly upon the offender. The rapidity with which human justice comes down, seems like the lightning discharge of Gods displeasure. Yet since this is rare, the slowness of its execution calls forth a yet more awful thought, its dread certainty. Seldom, said even heathen observation, has punishment, with limping tread, parted with the fore-hastening criminal. A class of heathenised writers, who but seldom mention God, are even fond of replacing Him with the old heathen goddess, Nemesis. So deeply inwrought in us is the thought of Gods persevering justice, which, though it seem to tarry, will surely come. Crime punished here impresses on us Gods just judgment on sin; crime which escapes here is an earnest of punishment hereafter.

III. Gods justice, by those universal laws which express the divinely-gifted reason of mankind, speaks further to the conscience by its minuteness. Men often encourage themselves in sin by the thought, It is only this; it is only that! Human law does not leave petty offences unpunished. It imitates herein God, who knows that the truest mercy to the sinner is to arrest him by light punishment (if he will be arrested) in the beginning of his sin. The law of Moses visited very heavily, sins both against the seventh and ninth commandments, which human law is now compelled to leave for the most part to the judgment seat of Christ. Yet mankind has endorsed the thought, that to rob of a good name is a worse sin than to rob of worldly goods; but human law leaves it unchecked, unrebuked. But it will not remain always unpunished, because unpunished now.

IV. Conscience, which doth make cowards of us all, is an involuntary, untaught inspired prophet of judgment to come. By conscience, I mean that eternal law written in our hearts by the finger of God, which unlettered islanders of the Pacific know as the magistrate within; that almost unextinguishable voice, which burned in David like a firebrand, drove Cain, self-condemned, a wanderer on the earth, made itself heard amid the murderers fitfulness of Saul, worked Ahabs passing humility, and Judas unloving but self-accusing remorse. Why does a word bleach a mans cheek, stop his utterance, or, if he have schooled himself to drive back all outward emotion, strike such a pang into his soul? It has awakened the voice of the silenced judge within. Whence, then, this terror? Whence but that conscience is already, in this world, a judgment seat of God? Conscience may be oerclouded, because it is not God; extinguished it cannot be, because it is from God. Judgment to come needs to be nothing new in kind; it needs to be but the intensified concentration of all those acts of judgment which God has passed upon us through ourselves, which He has made us pass upon ourselves. The final judgment is but the summary of all those particular judgments.

V. Here Paul speaks of the day of judgement as a manifestation. Of what? Plainly of what existed before, but was hidden. Here, some glimpse of us only shines through; there, what all and each of us have been is to be brought to open light. Light from Him who is Light shall lighten up all the secret corners of the soul of man, all the hidden springs and motives of his outward acts.

VI. Judgment to come, besides being a divine truth, declared from Job to revelation, is an absolute necessity. Every man is imperfect; every one is tending to a completion, of good or of evil, which here he does not reach. But more, we have each our individual responsibilities. Creation implies an end and object of that creation. We came forth from God; we return to God. God has left us to be masters over ourselves, to work out–with His grace, if we would have it, or, if not, against it–our own destiny, or alas! our own doom. We return, to give account of ourselves, to have our lives summed up, to be judged. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

The final assize

I. The statement respecting the future judgment with which the passage before us commences. We must all appear before the judgment seat.

II. To the account which the passage before us gives of the Person who is to sustain the office of Judge. We must all appear before the judgment seat Of Christ.

1. The sustaining of the office of future Judge will not on the part of Christ be an assumption, but a right–a right resting on Divine appointment.

2. But not merely on the ground of right–on the score of qualification Christ will sustain the office of future Judge.

III. To the manner in which the passage before us describes His mode of procedure.

1. That He will elicit every ones real character.

2. That, by His classification of them, He will impartially discriminate between the characters of all. In the worlds society, the good and the bad are so blended together, and in many instances bear so close a resemblance to each other, that the most sagacious human observer is often at a loss to say positively who they are who may be thus designated. But further, and in fine: whilst from the account given of His mode of procedure in the passage before us, it is plain that the future Judge will not only elicit every ones real character, but impartially discriminate between the characters of all, it is also undeniably plain that–

3. He will equitably apportion to all their respective allotment. He will apportion the allotment of those who have never enjoyed the light of revelation. (A. Jack.)

The great assize

1. There is no need to prove from Scripture that there will be a general judgment, for it abounds with proof-passages.

2. We infer that it must needs be, from the very fact that God is just as the Ruler over men. In all human governments there must be an assize held. Judge for yourselves: is this present state the conclusion of all things? If so, what evidence would you adduce of the Divine justice, in the teeth of the fact that the best of men are often the most afflicted, while the worst of men prosper? If there be no hereafter, then Dives has the best of it.

3. There is in the conscience of most men, if not of all, an assent to this fact. As an old Puritan says, God holds a petty session in every mans conscience, which is the earnest of the assize which He will hold by and by; for almost all men judge themselves, and their conscience knows this to be wrong and that to be right.

I. Who are they that will have to appear before the throne of judgment?

1. All. The godly will not be exempted, for the apostle here is speaking to Christians. They covet the judgment, and will be able to stand there to receive a public acquittal from the mouth of the great Judge. Who, among us, wishes to be smuggled into heaven? Who is he that shall lay anything to our charge since Christ hath died and hath risen again? Their trial will show that there has been no partiality in their case. What a day it will be for them! For some of them were lying under wrongful accusations, All will be cleared up then. There will be a resurrection of reputations as well as of bodies.

2. What a prodigious gathering! What will be the thoughts of Father Adam as he looks upon his offspring? But the most important thought to me is that I shall be there; to you, young men, that you will be there; to you, ye aged, that you shall be there. Are you rich? Your dainty dress shall be put off. Are you poor? Your rags shall not exempt you from attendance at that court.

2. Note the word appear. No disguise will be possible. Ye cannot come there dressed in masquerade of profession; off will come your garments. Oh, what a day that will be when every man shall see himself and his fellow, and the eyes of angels, of devils, and of God upon the throne, shall see us through and through!

II. Who will be the judge? That Christ should be is most fitting. British law ordains that a man shall be tried by his peers, which is just. So at the Judgment. Men shall be judged by a man. He can hold the scales of justice evenly, for He has stood in mans place. I expect no favouritism. Christ is our Friend and will be for ever; but, as a Judge, He will be impartial to all. You will have a fair trial. The Judge will not take sides against you. Men have sometimes been shielded from the punishment they deserved here because they were of a certain profession or occupied a certain position. It shall not be so there. There shall be no concealment of anything in thy favour, and no keeping back of anything against thee.

III. What will be the rule of judgment? Not our profession, our boastings, but our actions. This includes every omission as well as every commission (Mat 25:1-46.). All our words, too, will be brought up, and all our thoughts, for these lie at the bottom of our actions and give the true colour to them good or bad. Our motives, our heart sins, shall be published unreservedly. Well, saith one, who then can be saved? Ah! indeed, who? Those who have believed in Jesus (Rom 8:1).

IV. The object of this judgment. That every man may receive the things done in his body.

1. The Lord will grant unto His people an abundant reward for all that they have done. Not that they deserve any reward, but that God first gave them grace to do good works, then took their good works as evidence of a renewed heart, and then gave them a reward for what they had done.

2. But to the ungodly how terrible! They are to receive the things that they have done; that is to say, the punishment due–not every man alike, but the greater sinner the greater doom–Sodom and Gomorrah their place, Tyre and Sidon their places, and then to Capernaum and Bethsaida their place of more intolerable torment, because they had the gospel and rejected it. And the punishment will not only be meted out in proportion to the transgression, but it will be a development of the evil actions done in the evil consequences to be endured, as every man shall eat the fruit of his own ways. Oh, how dreadful it will be for the malicious man to find his malice come home to him, as birds come home to roost; for the lustful man to feel lust burning in every vein, which he can never gratify, etc., etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Judged by our acts

All things are engaged in writing their history. The planet, the pebble goes attended by its shadow. The rolling rock leaves its scratches on the mountain. The river its channel in the soil, the animal its bones in the stratum, the fern and leaf their modest epitaph in the coal. The falling drop makes its sculpture in the sand or stone. Not a foot steps into the snow, or along the ground, but prints, in characters more or less lasting, a map of its march. Every act of man leaves its mark, and hereafter our life will be judged by these marks. (S. S. Chronicle.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat] We labour to walk so as to please him, because we know that we shall have to give a solemn account of ourselves before the judgment seat of Christ; where he, whose religion we profess, will judge us according to its precepts, and according to the light and grace which it affords.

That every one may receive the things] . That each may receive to himself, into his own hand, his own reward and his own wages.

The things done in his body] That is, while he was in this lower state; for in this sense the term body is taken often in this epistle. We may observe also that the soul is the grand agent, the body is but its instrument. And it shall receive according to what it has done in the body.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The apostle declareth, either the ground of his confidence, or, rather, the reason of his and other believers labour, so to behave themselves, as that, both in life and death, they might be accepted of God; that was, his knowledge and firm belief of the last judgment. It is called

the judgmentseat of Christ, because he it is whom God hath appointed to be the judge both of the quick and the dead, Act 10:42. The word translated appear, is , which signifieth to be made manifest, and so signifieth not only to appear, but to be inquired into, searched, and examined, and narrowly sifted: and this lets us know, that those texts which speak of believers not being judged, or not coming into judgment, must not be understood of the judgment of inquiry, (for all shall come into that judgment), but of the judgment of condemnation. And it lets us also know the vanity of their opinion, who think that pagans shall not rise again in the last day.

That every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad: the end of this judgement is declared, that every man may receive according to what he hath done in his body; that is, according to the thoughts he hath thought, the words that he hath spoken, the actions which he hath done, during the time that his soul dwelt upon the earth in his body; whether the things which he did in that state were good, and such things as God required; or sinful, and contrary to the revealed will of God. What this receiving means, we are told, Mat 25:46; These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Hence we read, Joh 5:29, of a resurrection of life, and a resurrection of damnation.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. appearrather, “bemade manifest,” namely, in our true character. So “appear,”Greek, “be manifested” (Col3:4; compare 1Co 4:5). Weare at all times, even now, manifest to God; then we shall beso to the assembled intelligent universe and to ourselves: for thejudgment shall be not only in order to assign the everlasting portionto each, but to vindicate God’s righteousness, so that it shall bemanifest to all His creatures, and even to the conscience of thesinner himself.

receiveHis reward ofgrace proportioned to “the things done,” c. (2Co 9:6-92Jn 1:8). Though salvation be ofgrace purely, independent of works, the saved may have a greater orless reward, according as he lives to, and labors for, Christmore or less. Hence there is scope for the holy “ambition”(see on 2Co 5:9; Heb6:10). This verse guards against the Corinthians supposing thatall share in the house “from heaven” (2Co 5:1;2Co 5:2). There shall be asearching judgment which shall sever the bad from the good, accordingto their respective,deeds, the motive of the deeds being takeninto account, not the mere external act; faith and love to God arethe sole motives recognized by God as sound and good (Mat 12:36;Mat 12:37; Mat 25:35-45),

done in his bodyTheGreek may be, “by the instrumentality of the body”;but English Version is legitimate (compare Greek, Ro2:27). Justice requires that substantially the same bodywhich has been the instrument of the unbelievers’ sin, should be theobject of punishment. A proof of the essential identity of thenatural and the resurrection body.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For we must all appear,…. This is a reason why the saints are so diligent and laborious, so earnest and intent upon it, to be accepted of the Lord, because they must stand

before the judgment seat of Christ; who is appointed Judge of the whole earth, who is every way qualified for it, being God omnipotent and omniscient; and when he comes a second time will sit upon his great white throne, a symbol of purity and integrity, and will enter on this work, and finish it with the strictest justice and equity: and before him “we must all appear”; all the saints as well as others, ministers and people, persons of all ranks and conditions, of every nation, age, and sex; there will be no avoiding this judgment, all “must appear”, or “be made manifest”; they will be set in open view, before angels and men; their persons, characters, and actions, even the most secret will be:

that everyone may receive the things done in his body; which he has performed by the members of the body as instruments thereof, or whatsoever he has done whilst in the body; and so this not only reaches to words and actions, but includes all the secret thoughts of the mind, and counsels of the heart, which will be made manifest: and when it is said, that “everyone shall receive” these; the meaning is, that he shall receive the reward of them,

according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad; the reward of good works will be of grace, and not of merit: good works will be considered at the last judgment, not as causes of eternal life and happiness, to which the saints will be adjudged; but will be produced in open court as fruits of grace, and as evidences of the truth of faith, which will justify the Judge in proceeding according to what he himself, as a Saviour, has said,

he that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. The reward of bad works will be in strict and just proportion, according to the nature and demerit of them. The Jews say f, that

“all the works which a man does in this world, , “in the body”, and spirit, he must give an account of in body and spirit before he goes out of the world.”

And again g, all the works of men are written in a book,

, “whether good or evil”, and for them all they must give account.

f Zohar in Gen. fol. 57. 3. g Midrash Hanneelim in Zohar in Gen. fol. 75. 4.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Before the judgment-seat of Christ ( ). Old word , a step (from ), a platform, the seat of the judge (Mt 27:19). Christ is Saviour, Lord, and Judge of us all ( , the all).

That each may receive ( ). Receive as his due, means, old verb. See on Mt 25:27.

Bad (). Old word, akin to German faul, worthless, of no account, base, wicked.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Appear [] . Rev., better, be made manifest. Appear is not strong enough, since it implies only presence at the judgment – seat. The important fact is our being revealed as we are.

Judgment seat [] . See on Act 7:5.

May receive [] . See on 1Pe 1:8. Compare Eph 6:8; Col 3:25.

In the body [] . Lit., through the body as a medium.

Bad [] . See on Jas 3:16.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For we must all appear,” (tous gar pantas hemas phanerothenai dei) “For (it) is necessary that all of us be manifested,” are to appear, for review, for accounting; This appearance of the redeemed is to determine rewards and losses of rewards, not salvation, which is eternal, 1Co 3:14-15, Mar 4:22; Rom 2:16.

2) “Before the judgment seat of Christ,” (emprosthen tou Bematos tou Christou) “Before the tribunal (judgment place) of Christ;” to be judged, not to determine salvation, but the loss or gain of rewards, based upon one’s life’s conduct morally, ethically, and’ spiritually, after salvation, 2Jn 1:8; Rev 22:11-12; Rev 22:15; Joh 5:22.

THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

The image of Christ on the judgment seat is the same as that in Rom 16:10 (where, however, in the best MSS, it is “the seat of God”); and the expression is peculiar to these two passages, being taken from the tribunal of the Roman magistrate, as the most august representation of justice which the world then exhibited. “The Bema” was a lofty seat raised on an elevated platform, usually at the end of the Basilica, so that the figure of the judge must have been seen towering above the crowd which thronged the long nave of the building. So sacred and solemn did this seat and platform appear in the eyes, not only of the heathen, but of the Christian society of the Roman Empire, that when, two centuries later, the Basilica became the model of the Christian place of worship, the name of Bema (or tribunal) was transferred to the chair of the Bishop; and this chair occupied in the apse the place of the judgment seat of the praetor. In classical Greek the word Bema was applied not to the judgment seat, which did not exist in Grecian states, but to the stone pulpit of the orator. In the N.T. (with the exception of Act 12:5) it is always used for a “judgment seat.” The more unusual figure for the judgment is a “throne”. Comp. Ma. 25:31, “He shall sit on the throne of His glory;” Rev 20:11, “a great white throne;” Dan 12:9, “His throne was like a fiery flame.”

-Stanley

3) “That everyone may receive,” (hina komisetai hekastos) “in order that each one may receive,” the fruits of his labor by tribunal, judicial decree, rewards or loss of them, according to their works, deeds, Mat 12:36; Rom 14:10-12; Eph 6:8.

4) “The things done in his body “ (ta dia tou somatos) “The things through the body,” the works done thru the body, whether of wood, hay, or stubble kind, or of gold, silver, and precious stone kind, 1Co 3:12-13.

5) “According to that he hath done,” (pros ha epaksen) “according to what he practiced,” in the body the habitual things of daily life are to be judged, 1Co 3:8.

6) “Whether it be good or bad.” (eite agathon eite phaulon) “whether genuine good, (divinely sanctioned good) or whether foul things, worthless, unapproved;” Some shall receive rewards, others will be saved “as if by fire,” 1Co 3:14-15.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

10. We must be manifested. Though this is common to all, yet all without distinction do not raise their views in such a way as to consider every moment, that they must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. But while Paul, from a holy desire of acting aright, constantly sisted himself before the bar of Christ, he had it in view to reprove indirectly those ambitious teachers, who reckoned it enough to have the plaudits of their fellow-men. (534) For when he says, that no one can escape, he seems in a manner to summon them to that heavenly tribunal. Farther, though the word translated to be manifested might be rendered to appear, yet Paul had, in my opinion, something farther in view — that we shall then come forth to the light, while for the present many are concealed, as it were, in the darkness. For then the books, which are now shut, will be opened. (Dan 7:10.)

That every one may give account. As the passage relates to the recompensing of deeds, we must notice briefly, that, as evil deeds are punished by God, so also good deeds are rewarded, but for a different reason; for evil deeds are requited with the punishment that they deserve, but God in rewarding good deeds does not look to merit or worthiness. For no work is so full and complete in all its parts as to be deservedly well-pleasing to him, and farther, there is no one whose works are in themselves well-pleasing to God, unless he render satisfaction to the whole law. Now no one is found to be thus perfect. Hence the only resource is in his accepting us through unmerited goodness, and justifying us, by not imputing to us our sins. After he has received us into favor, he receives our works also by a gracious acceptance. It is on this that the reward hinges. There is, therefore, no inconsistency in saying, that he rewards good works, provided we understand that mankind, nevertheless, obtain eternal life gratuitously. On this point I have expressed myself more fully in the preceding Epistle, and my Institutes will furnish a full discussion of it. (535) When he says in the body, I understand him to mean, not merely outward actions, but all the deeds that are done in this corporeal life.

(534) “ Se contentoyent d’auoir l’applaudissement des hommes, comme feroyent ceux qui ioueroyent quelque rolle en vn theater;” — “Reckoned it enough to have the applause of men, like persons who act some part in a theater.”

(535) See Calvin on the Corinthians, vol. 1, pp. 303, 304; and Calvin’s Institutes, volume 2.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(10) For we must all appear.Better, must all be made manifest. The word is the same as that in 1Co. 4:5 (shall make manifest the counsels of the heart), and is obviously used with reference to it. It may be noted that it is specially characteristic of this Epistle, in which it occurs nine times. The English version, which can only be ascribed to the unintelligent desire of the translators to vary for the sake of variation, besides being weak in itself, hinders the reader from seeing the reference to 1Co. 4:5, or even the connection with the made manifest in the next verse.

Before the judgment seat of Christ.The Greek word shows the influence of Roman associations. In the Gospels the imagery of the last judgment is that of a king sitting on his throne (Mat. 25:31), and the word is the ever-recurring note of the Apocalypse, in which it occurs forty-nine times. Here the judgment-seat, or bema, is the tribunal of the Roman magistrate, raised high above the level of the basilica, or hall, at the end of which it stood. (Comp. Mat. 27:19; Act. 12:21; Act. 18:12.) The word was transferred, when basilicas were turned into churches, to the throne of the bishop, and in classical Greek had been used, not for the judges seat, but for the orators pulpit.

That every one may receive the things done in his body.It would have seemed almost impossible, but for the perverse ingenuity of the system-builders of theology, to evade the force of this unqualified assertion of the working of the universal law of retribution. No formula of justification by faith, or imputed righteousness, or pardon sealed in the blood of Christ, or priestly absolution, is permitted by St. Paul to mingle with his expectations of that great day, as revealing the secrets of mens hearts, awarding to each man according to his works. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal. 6:7) was to him an eternal, unchanging law. The revelation of all that had been secret, for good or evil; the perfectly equitable measurement of each element of good or evil; the apportionment to each of that which, according to this measurement, each one deserves for the good and evil which he has done: that is the sum and substance of St. Pauls eschatology here and in 1Co. 4:5. At times his language seems to point to a yet fuller manifestation of the divine mercy as following on that of the divine righteousness, as in Rom. 5:17-18; Rom. 11:32. At times, again, he speaks as if sins were washed away by baptism (1Co. 6:11), or forgiven freely through faith in the atoning blood (Rom. 3:25; Eph. 2:13); as though the judgment of the great day was anticipated for all who are in Christ by the absence of an accuser able to sustain his charge (Rom. 8:3), by the certainty of a sentence of acquittal (Rom. 8:1). If we ask how we can reconcile these seeming inconsistencies, the answer is, that we are not wise in attempting to reconcile them by any logical formula or ingenious system. Here, as in other truths of the spiritual lifeGods foreknowledge and mans free-will, Gods election and mans power to frustrate it, Gods absolute goodness and the permission of pain and evilthe highest truth is presented to us in phases that seem to issue in contradictory conclusions, and we must be content to accept that result as following from the necessary limitations of human knowledge.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

10. We strive thus to be accepted, for we must stand before his throne.

Appear Rather, must be manifested. We must, at Christ’s judgment, be entirely exposed to view in all our moral history and character. Same Greek word as made manifest in 2Co 5:11.

The judgment seat The bema of Christ. The bema was the seat of the Roman judge, visible at the end of the court room, high above the level of the audience. It was before such a bema that Jesus himself was arraigned. Mat 27:19. And curiously enough, St. Paul himself was arraigned before the bema of the Roman Gallio at Corinth. Act 18:12. And St. Paul is the only New Testament writer who appropriates the word to a Christian use, as he does in Rom 14:10 and this passage. Instead of the judicial bema, the regal throne is the word more ordinarily used. Mat 25:31; Rev 20:11; Dan 7:9. See Stanley on the passage.

All every one The presence is of all, the analysis and reward is of each individual. There is no overlooking the one in the vast whole.

Receive Receive compensatively.

The things done in his body The great body of modern commentators approve the sense given to these words by our translators. The best ancient ones, Tertullian, Chrysostom, and others, would render: Each may receive through (the instrumentality of) his body the things according to that he hath done. The meaning, then, would be, that the body is present at the resurrection to receive recompense for what the body has done. Grammatically, this rendering avoids a very awkward pleonasm, done, done. The objection that the apostle has all along hitherto spoken of our present body, and would not mention the resurrection body, without some distinctive term, seems trifling. The resurrection state is the scene of the whole verse, and the body there must, of course, be the resurrection body. In either interpretation the preposition of instrumentality through the body is a striking intimation that Paul holds the soul to be the person, and the body whether brain, hands, or feet to be its organ in wickedness or righteousness.

Whether good or bad Does this imply that the all includes the righteous and wicked? Meyer says there may be a judgment of lower grading in, as well as of exclusion from, the heavenly kingdom. True, but not as here, where a positive reception of compensation for bad is stated. The all evidently includes here those who receive penal evil for wickedness, the wicked, and implies a universal judgment.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For we must all be made openly revealed (laid bare) before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad.’

Note the ‘we must’. It is a divinely ordained necessity. So why is being well-pleasing to Him their aim? Because they know that one day all Christians must be ‘made openly revealed’ before the judgment seat of Christ. This seat is like the reward seat at the Games. It is a place where those who are His receive the reward for good things done in the body, and experience the sadness at reward lost because of the useless things, because of their failure at times to be fit enough. Compare 1Co 3:10-15; 1Co 4:4; Rom 14:10-12. It is a time when all who are His will receive praise from God, for all will have something to offer as worthy of reward (otherwise they are not Christians), and all will be aware that they could have done better.

There is no reason why this judgment seat should be differentiated from the judgment at the last day or the great white throne of judgment (Revelation 20). (For details on this go to  Revelation 7) The point is rather that the Christian comes to it to be judged on a different level from the unbeliever. The unbeliever is judged on the whole aspect of his rebellion and disobedience to God’s Law. For him it is the criminal court. For the believer that is behind him. The charges have been met and dealt with in Christ. What he must account for is his service as God’s steward. For him it is the employment tribunal. What is good will be preserved. What is useless and worthless will be burned up.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

2Co 5:10 . Objective motive of this strivin.

] no one excepted. It applies to all Christians ; comp. Rom 14:10 .

] a divine appointment, which is not to be evade.

] This does not imply “the concealment hitherto of the dead” (de Wette), for the living also are judged, but means: manifestos fieri cum occultis nostris (Bengel, comp. Beza). Comp. 1Co 4:5 ; Rom 2:16 . Thus it is distinguished from the mere , 2Co 4:14 , Rom 14:10 , for which Grotius takes it; and it is arbitrary to declare this distinction unnecessary (Rckert), since that conception corresponds alike with the word (comp. 2Co 5:11 ) and the fact. Comp. Chrysostom and Theodore.

] Moral actions are, according to the idea of adequate requital, conceived as something deposited, which at the last judgment is carried away , received, and taken with us, namely, in the equivalent reward and punishment. Comp. Eph 6:8 ; Col 3:25 ; Gal 6:7 ; Mat 6:20 ; Rev 14:13 .

] sc. , that which is brought about through the body , that which has been done by means of the activity of the bodily life ( as organic instrument of the Ego in its moral activity generally; hence not: ). Comp., on , expressions like , Plat. Phaed. p. 65 A; , Phaedr. p. 250 D, al. ; Khner, ad Xen. Mem. iv. 5. 3. [220] Instead of Luther’s: in the life of the body (so also de Wette and many others), through the life of the body would be better. There is no reason for taking the merely of the state (2Co 3:11 ). The thought of the resurrection-body , with which the recompense is to be received (to which view Osiander, following the Fathers and some older commentators, is inclined), is alien to the context (2Co 5:6 ; 2Co 5:8-9 ); besides, merely . would be used without .

The contains the standard of righteousness, in accordance with which every one : corresponding to what he has done .

, ] sc. . The recompense of the wicked may take place as well by the assigning of a lower degree of the Messianic salvation (1Co 3:15 ; 2Co 9:6 ) as by exclusion from the Messianic kingdom (1Co 6:9 f.; Gal 5:21 ; Eph 5:5 ).

[220] The reading (Arm. Vulg. It. Goth. Or. twice, and many Fathers), which Grotius and Mill approved, is to be regarded as a gloss, in which was meant to be defined more precisely by . In the Pelagian controversy the acquired importance for combating the doctrine of original sin, because children could not have done any peccata, and hence could not be liable to judgment. On the other hand, Augustine, Ep . 107, laid stress on the imputation of Adam’s sin, according to which it was the moral property even of children.

REMARK.

Our passage does not, as Flatt thought, refer to a special judgment which awaits every man immediately after death (a conception quite foreign to the apostle), but to the last judgment conceived as “near; and it results from it that, according to Paul, the atonement made through the death of Jesus, in virtue of which the pre-Christian guilt of those who had become believers was blotted out, does not do away with the requital of the moral relation established in the Christian state. Comp. Rom 14:10 ; Rom 14:12 ; 1Co 4:5 . They come in reality not simply before the judgment (to receive their graduated reward of grace, as Osiander thinks), but into the judgment; in Joh 3:18 , the last judgment is not spoken of, and as to 1Co 6:2 f., see on that passage. Paul, however, does not thereby say that, if the Christian has fallen and turns back again to faith, the atonement through Christ does not benefit him; on the contrary, the of the Christian is a repetition of his passing over to faith, and the effect of the atonement (of the ) is repeated, or rather continues for the Christian individual, so that even the Christian sins are blotted out, when one returns from the life of sin into that of faith. But the immoral conduct of Christians, continuing without this , is liable to the punishment of the judgment, because they in such an event have frustrated as to themselves the aim of the plan of redemption. Comp. Weiss, bibl . Theol. p. 379. This in opposition to Rckert’s opinion, that Paul knows nothing of a continuing effect of the merit of Christ . This continuing effect is implied not only in the general Pauline doctrine that eternal life is God’s gift of grace (Rom 6:23 ), and in the idea of Christ’s intercession (Rom 8:34 ; comp. Heb 7:25 ; Heb 9:24 ; 1Jn 2:1-2 ), but also in passages like 2Co 7:10 , compared with Rom 5:9-10 ; Rom 5:17 . We may add the apt remark of Lcke on 1 John, p 147: “As a single past and concluded fact, it (Christ’s atoning work) would be just a mere symbol; it has full truth only in its continuing efficacy.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2019
THE IMPROVEMENT TO BE MADE OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE JUDGMENT

2Co 5:10-11. We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that erery one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

TIME is generally thought to be of little use, except as it may be employed in amusements or in the prosecution of worldly business; but its value, as it stands connected with eternity, exceeds all calculation. The manner in which every hour is spent is recorded in heaven; every moment, as it were, increases our eternal happiness or misery. This consideration made the Apostle solicitous to redeem time himself, and to improve it for the good of others: We knowing therefore, &c.

I.

The Apostles account of the day of judgment

Christ is the person who shall judge the world
[He who stood at Pilates bar is exalted for this purpose [Note: Act 17:31.]. Our Lord himself plainly and repeatedly affirmed it [Note: Joh 5:22; Joh 5:27.].]

He will erect his tribunal in a solemn and public manner
[Daniel spake of this in very exalted terms [Note: Dan 7:9-10.]. Our Lord also has declared it [Note: Mat 25:31.].]

Before this we must all appear
[All who have ever existed from the beginning to the end of the world shall stand at his bar [Note: Rev 20:12-13.]. None shall be able to elude or to withstand the summons [Note: Joh 5:28.].]

All that we have done in the body will then be made manifest
[The secrets of every heart shall be disclosed [Note: Ecc 12:14.]. The mask will be taken from the face of the hypocrite: the tears and sighings of the contrite will be declared before all [Note: 1Co 4:5.].]

Then shall every one receive according to his doings, whether they be good or bad
[The seeming inequalities of the Divine government will then be rectified: the godly will not then be any more condemned, or the wicked be justified. They who from faith and love have obeyed God shall be rewarded: they who have been disobedient and unbelieving shall be punished [Note: Rom 2:5-11.].]

The rewards and punishments shall be respectively proportioned to the good or evil that has been done
[They who have greatly improved their talents will be greatly rewarded [Note: Luk 19:17; Luk 19:24.]: they whose sins have been peculiarly aggravated will be more severely punished [Note: Luk 12:47.].]

A more important consideration than this cannot enter into the mind of man.

II.

The improvement which he made of it

This subject is extremely awful even to the best of men
[The most eminently pious are conscious of many defects. They know also the deceitfulness of their hearts. Hence not even St. Paul himself could fully rely on the verdict of his own conscience [Note: 1Co 4:4.].]

But it is full of terror to the ungodly
[To see him as their Judge, whose dying love they despised! To be confronted with all their accomplices in wickedness! To have the books of Gods remembrance opened! To have all their secret thoughts and desires exposed! To know that their doom is irrevocably fixed! To wait the dreadful sentence from the mouth of their Judge! To have nothing but an eternity of unmixed misery before them! What can be more terrible [Note: Rev 6:14-17.]?]

Paul well knew this terror of the Lord. He therefore laboured to persuade men
[He persuaded men to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life: he spared no pains to attain this object of his wishes [Note: Rom 15:19. 1Co 9:19-22.] he regarded no sufferings if he might but prevail on some [Note: 2Ti 2:10. Act 20:24.] ]

Application

[We would improve this subject as the Apostle did. We know most assuredly these terrors of the Lord. We, on account of our office, are peculiarly interested in the events of that day [Note: Heb 13:17. If this subject were addressed to the Clergy, this thought should be amplified.]: we therefore would persuade you to repent, and believe the Gospel [Note: Mar 1:15.]: we would persuade you by every alarming or encouraging consideration. Consider the certainty of that daythe nearness of itthe greatness of the preparation necessaryand the consequence of dying unprepared. Consider the free remission, and the almighty assistance now offered you, and the blessedness of being prepared to meet your God. May we all lay these considerations to heart! May we at the last be found, not only almost, but altogether Christians!]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Ver. 10. For we must all, &c. ] This great assize will not be such an assembly as that of Ahasuerus, of his nobles, princes, and captains only; nor such as the biddings of rich men to their feasts, of their rich neighbours only; but like the invitation of that householder that sent his servants to compel all to come in, Luk 14:12 . On that day Adam shall see all his nephews together.

Appear before, &c. ] Be laid open, and have all ripped up, . Our sins that are now written as it were with the juice of lemons, shall then by the fire of the last day be made legible. And as in April both wholesome roots and poisonous discover themselves, which in the winter were not seen, so at the day of judgment good and evil actions. (Mac. Hom. 12.)

The things done in his body ] That is, the just reward of those things; In die iudicii plus valebit conscientia pura, quam marsupia plena. (Bernard.) Then shall a good conscience be more worth than all the world’s good. And this was that which made Paul so sincere a preacher and so insatiable a server of God, as Chrysostom calleth him.

Whether it be good or bad ] Wicked men shall give an account, 1. De bonis commissis, of goods committed to them. 2. De bonis dismissis, of good neglected by them. 3. De malis commissis, of evils committed. 4. De malis permissis, of evils done by others, suffered by them. Itaque vivamus, saith the orator. (Cic. iv. in Ver.) Let us so live as those that must render an account of all.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

10. ] For (explanation and fixing of , as to when , and how testified ) we all (and myself among the number) must be made manifest (not merely ‘ appear ’ = [which is a most unfortunate rendering of the E. V., giving to the reader merely the idea of “appearing before” as when summoned to a magistrate], but ‘ appear in our true light ,’ appear as we have never done before, as in reff., where the word is used of our Lord Himself: see also 1Co 4:5 ) before the judgment-seat (on , see Stanley’s note) of Christ, that each may receive (the technical word for receiving wages ) the things (done) through the body (as a medium or organ of action. Meyer cites , Plato, Phdo, p. 65, and , Phdr, p. 250), according to the things which he did (in the body), whether (it were) good, or bad (singular, as abstract). I may observe that no more definite inference must be drawn from this verse as to the place which the saints of God shall hold in the general judgment, than it warrants; viz. that they as well as others, shall be manifested and judged by Him ( Mat 25:19 ): when , or in company with whom , is not here so much as hinted.

I cannot pass on, without directing the student to the passage on this verse in Chrysostom’s tenth Homily, p. 510 ff., as one of the grandest extant efforts of human eloquence.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Co 5:10 . . . .: for (explanatory of the reason of our desire to be “well-pleasing” to Him) we all ( is emphatic, not only Paul who has been speaking of himself as , but “all of us” quick as well as dead ) must be made manifest . The A.V. “appear” weakens the force of the word; the Day of Judgment is to be a day when men’s characters shall be made patent to the world, and to themselves, as they have always been to God; cf. Mar 4:22 , Rom 2:16 ; Rom 14:10 , 1Co 4:5 , Rev 20:12 . . . .: before the judgment-seat of Christ . In the N.T. (see reff.) is always used (except in the quotation Act 7:5 ) of the official seat of a judge, although twice in the LXX (Neh 8:4 , 2Ma 13:26 ), as generally in classical Greek, it stands for the pulpit from which a formal speech is made. . . .: that each one may receive, i.e. , obtain the wages of (see reff.), the things done through the medium of the body ( cf. Plato’s phrase , cited by Meyer; there is no need to identify with of 2Co 5:6 as the A.V. and R.V. do) according to what he did, sc. , in this present life (note the aorist and cf. Luk 12:47 ), whether it be good or bad ( cf. , for this constr. of , Eph 6:8 , Phi 1:18 ). Similar expressions are used of a future judgment, at, e.g. , Ps. 61:13, Pro 24:12 , Jer 17:10 ; Jer 32:19 ( cf. Job 34:11 ?) in the O.T., and in the N.T. at Rom 2:6 ; Rom 14:12 , 1Pe 1:17 , in all of which passages the power of judgment is ascribed to the Eternal Father. But He “hath given all judgment unto the Son” (Joh 5:22 ), and thus Christ is repeatedly spoken of as the future Judge of men, e.g. , Mat 16:27 , Act 17:31 , Rev 2:23 ; Rev 22:12 , and esp. Mat 25:31-46 . Cf. Luk 21:36 , . And so (from the present verse) the variant has crept into the parallel passage, Rom 14:10 , f1 . A reference to the O.T. parallels makes it tolerably plain that the statement that men will be judged according to their works is a broad and general one, and that to find a difficulty, as the Fathers did, in the case of the death of infants (whether baptised or unbaptised), who are incapable of self-conscious and voluntary actions, is quite perverse.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

appear= be manifested, App-106.

before = in the presence of. See Mat 5:16.

judgment seat. See Rom 14:10.

Christ = the Christ. App-98.

every = each.

in = by means of. App-104. 2Co 5:1.

according to = with reference to. App-104.

done = practised.

bad. App-128. The texts read phaulos as Joh 3:20.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

10.] For (explanation and fixing of , as to when, and how testified) we all (and myself among the number) must be made manifest (not merely appear = [which is a most unfortunate rendering of the E. V., giving to the reader merely the idea of appearing before as when summoned to a magistrate], but appear in our true light, appear as we have never done before, as in reff., where the word is used of our Lord Himself: see also 1Co 4:5) before the judgment-seat (on , see Stanleys note) of Christ, that each may receive (the technical word for receiving wages) the things (done) through the body (as a medium or organ of action. Meyer cites , Plato, Phdo, p. 65, and , Phdr, p. 250), according to the things which he did (in the body), whether (it were) good, or bad (singular, as abstract). I may observe that no more definite inference must be drawn from this verse as to the place which the saints of God shall hold in the general judgment, than it warrants; viz. that they as well as others, shall be manifested and judged by Him (Mat 25:19): when, or in company with whom, is not here so much as hinted.

I cannot pass on, without directing the student to the passage on this verse in Chrysostoms tenth Homily, p. 510 ff., as one of the grandest extant efforts of human eloquence.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Co 5:10. , for all) when treating of death, the resurrection, and eternal life, he also thinks appropriately, of the judgment. The motive is herein assigned for that holy ambition.- , that we all) even apostles, whether abiding as pilgrims here or departing.-) not only to appear in the body, but to be made manifest along with [as well as] all our secrets, 1Co 4:5. Even the sins of believers, which have been long ago pardoned will then be laid open; for many of their good deeds, their repentance, their revenge directed against their sin, in order to be made known to the world, require the revelation of their sins. If a man has pardoned his brother an offence, the offence will also be exhibited, etc. But that will be done to them, with their will, without shame and grief; for they will be different from what they were. That revelation will be made indirectly, with a view to their greater praise [credit, honour]. Let us consider this subject more deeply.

1. The words of sacred scripture respecting the remission of sins are extremely significant. Sins are covered: they will not be found: they are cast behind: sunk in the sea: scattered as a cloud and as mist: without being remembered. Therefore not even an atom of sin will cleave to any, who shall stand on the right hand in the judgment.

2. On the other hand, the expressions concerning all the works of all men, which are to be brought forward in the judgment, are universal, Ecc 12:14; Rom 14:10; 1Co 3:13, etc., 2Co 4:5.

3. The passage 2Co 5:10 is consistent with these, where the apostle from the manifestation of all, whether of those going home or of those remaining as pilgrims, before the tribunal of Christ, infers the TERROR of the Lord and of the Judge, 2Co 5:11-12, and declares that terror to be the occasion of anxiety not only to the reprobate, but also to himself and to those like himself. Such fear would have no existence in the case of the saints if the opinion as to their sins not being about to be revealed were assumed to be true. Furthermore Paul says, that he, and such as he, would be manifested not only so far as they have acted well on the whole, but also so far as they have failed in any particular. There is wonderful variety of rewards among those, who are saved; and demerits [of saints] have effect, though not indeed in relation to punishment [which the saints wholly escape] but to loss, as opposed to reward, 1Co 3:14-15 : comp. 2Co 1:14; Php 2:16; Php 4:1. That phrase, that every one may receive, etc., shows, that the deficiencies in the case of the righteous will be also manifested. For thus and thus only will it be manifested, why each man receives neither more nor less than the reward, which he actually receives. The Lord will render to every one, AS his work shall be.

4. Wherefore we ought not to press too far the words quoted in 1. The sins of the elect, which are past, will not cease to be the objects of the Divine Omniscience for ever, although without any offence and upbraiding. And this one consideration is of more importance, than the manifestation of their sins before all creatures, though it were to continue for ever, much less as it is, in the day of judgment alone, when their sins will appear not as committed, but as retracted and blotted out in consequence of repentance.

5. In the case of the elect themselves, their own sins will not cease to be the object of their remembrance, although without any uneasiness attending it. He, to whom much has been forgiven, loves much. The everlasting remembrance of a great debt, which has been forgiven, will be the fuel of the strongest love.

6. So great is the efficacy of the Divine word with men in this life, that it separates the soul from the Spirit, Heb 4:12, and lays bare the secrets of the heart, 1Co 14:25. Shame for what has been committed and remitted belongs to the soul, not the spirit. Men wallowing in gross sins often throw out their secrets; in despair they conceal nothing. But grace, much more powerful, renders those, who have received it, quite ingenuous. Men truly penitent proceed with the utmost readiness to the most open confessions of their secret wickedness, Act 19:18. How much more in that day will they bear, that they be manifested, when the tenderness of the natural affections is entirely swallowed up? Comp. 1Co 6:9; 1Co 6:11. Such candour confers great peace and praise. If in the judgment there were room in the minds of the righteous, for example, for shame, I believe that those sins, which are now most covered, would cause less uneasiness, than those, of which they are less ashamed at the present time. We are most ashamed at present of the sins, which are contrary to modesty. But it is right, that we should be more ashamed of other sins, for example against the first table.

7. That Adam was saved, we have no doubt, but his fall will be remembered for ever; for otherwise I do not understand, how the restitution made by Christ can be worthily celebrated in heaven. The conduct of David in the case of Uriah, the denial of Peter, the persecution of Saul, the sins of others, though they have been forgiven, have yet continued on record for so long a time in the Old and New Testament. If this fact presents no obstacle to the forgiveness long ago granted, the mention of sins will be no obstacle to their forgiveness even in the last judgment. It is not every manifestation of offences, which constitutes a part of punishment.

8. Good and evil have so close a connection, as well as so inseparable a relation to each other, that the revelation of the good cannot be understood without the evil. But since certain sins of the saints shall be laid bare, it is fitting, that all the circumstances [all things] should be brought to light. This view tends to the glory of the Divine Omniscience and mercy; and in such a way as this the reasons for pronouncing a mild judgment on some, and a severe judgment on others, along with the accurate adjustment, , of the retribution, will shine forth in all their brightness.

9. I do not say, that all the sins of all the blessed will be actually and distinctly seen by all the creatures. Perhaps the accursed will not know them; the righteous will have no cause to fear each other. Their sins, when the light of that great day discloses all things, will not be directly manifested, as is done in the case of the guilty, who are punished, whence in Matthew 25 no mention is made of them, but indirectly, so far as it will be proper; just as in a court of justice among men, it often occurs, that many things are wont to enter into the full view [aspect] of the deed incidentally. And in some such way as this also the good works of the reprobate will be made manifest. All things may be known in the light, but all do not know all things.

10. This consideration ought to inspire us with fear for the future; for it had this effect on the apostles, as this passage 2 Corinthians 5 shows. But if more tender souls shrink back from that manifestation, on account of their sins past; when they have been duly instructed from what has been said, especially at 6, they will acquiesce [acquire confidence in regard to the manifestation of all sins in the judgment]. Often does truth, which at first appeared bitter, become sweet after closer consideration. If I love any one as myself, he may, with my full acquiescence, know all things concerning me, which I know concerning myself. We shall judge of many things differently, we shall feel differently on many subjects, until we arrive at that point.

, may receive) This word is used not only regarding the reward or punishment, but also regarding the action, which the reward or punishment follows, Eph 6:8; Col 3:25; Gal 6:7.-, every one) separately.- ) Man [along] with his body acts well or ill; [therefore also] man [along] with his body receives the reward; comp. Tertull. de resurr. carnis, c. 43. – , those inmost thoughts, according to which he performed outward actions. , while he was in the body, 2Co 5:6; 2Co 5:8 – 2Co 4:10, comp. Rom 2:27.- , whether good or bad) construed with hath done. No man can do both good and evil at the same time.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

2Co 5:10

2Co 5:10

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ;-The deeds and courses of all must be laid open to all when we come before the judgment seat of Christ.

that each one may receive the things done in the body,-We shall be judged according to the things done in the body. We cherish secret thoughts and cover up acts of which we are ashamed, but they will be laid open to God, angels, and men. How foolish to conceal things here to have them laid open before the universe.

according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.-Each will be rewarded at that day with good or evil, as the deeds here have been according to or against the will of God. [Unto those who through faith in Christ obey him and continue steadfastly in well-doing, seeking for glory and honor and incorruption, God will give eternal life; but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek: for there is no respect of persons with God. (Rom 2:8-11).]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Pauls Three Impelling Motives

2Co 5:9-14

Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us. (vv. 9-14)

In this section of the epistle the apostle Paul brings before us the three great motives that moved his heart as he went about through the world proclaiming the gospel of Christ. The first is this: He ever had it before his mind that all his work must soon be tested at the judgment seat of Christ. What a solemn reflection it is for a Christian to remember that everything he says and everything he does as a believer is someday going to be examined by the Lord Jesus, and he will be rewarded accordingly! This, of course, is an altogether different thing from the Christless soul standing before the Great White Throne to be judged for his sins. The judgment seat of Christ refers to that review which will take place when our blessed Lord returns again and gathers all His own before Himself. He says, Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be (Rev 22:12). The Son of Man is like one who has gone into a far country, but has left to his servants certain responsibilities and given them certain talents, and says, Occupy till I come. Then when He returns again He is going to examine all their work, and reward everything that was the result of His Holy Spirits control over their lives.

Notice the way the apostle puts it here. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. This word translated labor really means are ambitious. It might be translated, Wherefore we [are ambitious], that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. The apostle uses this same word in two other places in his letters. In one instance he tells us that he is ambitious not to build on another mans foundation, but to preach the gospel in the regions beyond, a most worthy ambition. He was a true missionary. And then again, writing to the Thessalonian saints, he exhorts them to study to be quiet and to do their own business. That may be translated, Be ambitious to mind your own business. That is a wonderful ambition. So many are ambitious to mind other folks business that they do not have time for their own. We [are ambitious], that, whether present or absent-those words refer back to the first part of this chapter where we read, Absent from the body, present with the Lord. Now he says, We [are ambitious] that whether present in the body or whether with the Lord, whether we live or die, that we should be accepted of Him.

In the epistle to the Ephesians he tells us that God has made us accepted in the beloved (Eph 1:6). As believers we are all accepted in Christ, but here we find that he is urgently desirous of being accepted of Christ. Notice the difference. Accepted in Him-that is my standing. God sees me in Him, and Christ Jesus is made unto me wisdom, even righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is my perfection. I am complete in Him. But now I who already am complete in Him, who already have been accepted in Him, am to be exercised about being accepted of Him. Accepted of Him really means being well-pleasing to Him. You see, accepted in Him is my standing, accepted o/Him has to do with my state. I wonder whether this is our ambition. Let us search our hearts and ask what our ambition really is. Is it to excel in some particular line for which you feel you are specially adapted? Is it to be thought well of by men and women like yourself? Or is it to be well-pleasing to the Lord, to have His approval?

I remember very well hearing Dr. G. Campbell Morgan say that a great crisis came into his life when he first gave up his place as a schoolmaster to become a minister of Christ. It was a very solemn moment when he was set apart to the work of the Lord, and when he got home that night and went into his room, he fell down on his knees before God, and he was sure he could hear the Lord saying to him, Now, Morgan, you have been set apart definitely for the ministry of the Word. Do you want to be a great preacher, or do you want to be My servant? His first thought was, Oh, I want to be a great preacher; surely there is no more laudable ambition than that. But why should the Lord put it that way-Do you want to be a great preacher, or do you want to be My servant? And he said, Why can I not be His servant, and a great preacher? He went through a time of real soul-struggle, and then the thought came that it might be in the will of God that as a servant of Christ his ministry should be a very obscure one, and he cried, O blessed Lord, I would rather be Thy servant than anything else! And God not only made him His servant but a great preacher. Sometimes we fulfill our deepest ambition by foregoing our own desires and saying, Lord, I want to be Thy servant; just take me, make me, break me, do what Thou wilt with me. You remember that through Jeremiah the Lord said to Baruch: Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not (Jer 45:5). So He says to every one of us, Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not. But what should we seek? To be well-pleasing unto Him, so that whatever niche He calls upon us to fill we may fill it to His glory, and this in view of the judgment seat.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Have you ever as a Christian stopped to think of what a solemn thing it will be when your lifes work is ended, when all further opportunity for witnessing for Christ on earth will have gone by forever, when you stand in your glorified body before His judgment seat, and He will go back over all the way you have come, and will give His own estimate of all your service, of everything you have ever attempted to do for Him? Will He have to say at such a time, You had a very wonderful opportunity to glorify Me, but you failed because you were so self-occupied, you were so much concerned about what people would think of you, instead of being concerned about pleasing Me; I will have to blot all that out, I cannot reward you for that, for there was too much self in that service? And then He will point to something else, maybe something you had forgotten altogether, and He will say, There! You thought you failed in that; didnt you? You really thought you blundered so dreadfully that your whole testimony amounted to nothing, but I was listening and observing, and I knew that in that hour of weakness your one desire was to glorify Me, and though nobody applauded you I took note of it and will reward you for it. What a joy it will be to receive His approval in that day. If we learn to live as Paul did with the judgment seat of Christ before us, we will not be men-pleasers, but we will be Christ-pleasers.

Notice the next motive that stirred the apostles heart to Christian endeavor. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. This, I think, is a forgotten note in modern preaching in many places. The terror of the Lord. Is there anything in God to be afraid of? Away back in the 1870s Theodore Parker preached a sermon that was widely published titled, There Is Nothing in God to Fear, and in some way or another that false note that he struck at that time went all over this land, and more or less had its influence upon thousands of preachers who read that eloquent sermon, and men came to the conclusion that there was nothing in God to fear, and so dropped the doctrine of eternal punishment for impenitent sinners. They forgot that the Bible said, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:31), and substituted a rosewater gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, instead of the stern reality set forth in this Book. But there is something in God to fear, something that the Christless man may well fear, and that is Gods hatred of iniquity. God is of purer eyes than to look upon sin; He cannot but judge iniquity. And so the apostle said, Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. As he thought of Christians having to answer for their behavior at the judgment seat of Christ it at once brought home to his heart what a solemn thing it would be for unsaved men to face their sins at the great white throne. The apostle Peter says, The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1Pe 4:17-18). If our blessed Lord does not overlook one thing in the lives of His beloved people, but if everything is coming into the light in that day, what will it be for Christless men to have all their sins made manifest at His judgment bar, and to meet a just and awful doom? As Paul went out to this poor Christless world he realized he was going to men that were lost, not merely in danger of being lost someday, but lost here and now in this life. But he had a gospel for lost men, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luk 19:10), and so he went to men with Christ. He did not go out to glorify himself or to get a certain reputation among men.

He says, We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. When you find men who profess to be servants of Christ glorying in outward appearance, Paul says, you can contrast our behavior with theirs-we are made the very offscouring of the earth for Christs sake and are not seeking mans applause, we are seeking the approval of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were those who said of Paul, The man is insane; it is not natural that any man should be actuated by such motives as these; it is not natural for a man to live a life such as this. Very well, he says, Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. We are not even concerned about insisting that we are sane; we are not even concerned about insisting that our words are words of sobriety; we leave that to God to judge. We proclaim the message in dependence on the Holy Spirit, and are not concerned at all about mans approval or disapproval. Our business is to glorify Christ and to seek to save the lost. This is the ideal preacher of the Word. I never read words like these but I feel so condemned in my own conscience that I hardly know how to talk to other people. I can detect in my own heart so much pride, so much human ambition, so much selfishness, so much that is different from what was found in the Lord Jesus Christ, that I have to bow before Him and tell Him I am so unworthy to be His servant, and yet to plead with Him for Jesus sake to use one, even though unworthy, who at least has some little desire to see poor sinners brought to a saving knowledge of Gods beloved Son.

It is always comforting to know that everything that God has done in this world, He has done through imperfect instruments. He has never had a perfect instrument. I do not think of Jesus as an instrument, He was God-God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself (2Co 5:19)-but I am thinking of His prophets, His preachers, pastors, evangelists, teachers, apostles; they are all imperfect. A Peter denied his Lord, even a John and a James were ambitious to sit one on the right hand and one on the left hand of the Lord in His kingdom, and a Paul made a mistake at the last and insisted on going up to Jerusalem against the voice of the Spirit. Even the best of Gods servants have failed, and yet how gracious of Him to use them. He uses the message they bring, the truth they proclaim. He will deal with His servants Himself about their failure, but He will use the message when Christ is lifted up.

Now notice the last of these three impelling motives. Paul says, For the love of Christ constraineth us. I stop here in the middle of a sentence, for these words in themselves are enough; they complete our theme. What are Pauls three impelling motives? First, a realization of the fact that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ; second, a recognition of the fact that men are lost and exposed to the judgment of God; and third, the love of Christ constraining, that all-conquering love that laid hold of the heart of proud, haughty, self-righteous, cruel Saul of Tarsus, that religious zealot who went forth with a heart filled with hatred for the name of Jesus, seeking to bind those that loved Him, to cast them in prison and compel them to blaspheme, in fact to put them to death if they did not renounce Christ. There he was, hastening on to Damascus with no thought in his soul that the time would ever come when he would be the greatest preacher of the gospel which he was then seeking to destroy, that this world should ever know. He fell to the ground, a light brighter than the sun shone round about him, and he heard a voice from the glory exclaiming in sweet accents, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And trembling and astonished he exclaimed, Who art thou, Lord? And the answer came back, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me (Act 26:14-18). And in that one glorious moment the darkness disappeared from Sauls heart, the veil was torn away, his eyes were opened, Christ filled the vision of his soul, and henceforth he could say, The love of Christ; constraineth me. That is what made him the man that he was, actuated, motivated by divine love. Do you know that love? Have you too been laid hold of by the love of Christ? Then may you go forth to make Him known to others.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

For we must all appear

The judgment of the believer’s works, not sins, is in question here. These have been atoned for, and are “remembered no more forever” Heb 10:17 but every work must come into judgment,; Mat 12:36; Rom 14:10; Gal 6:7; Eph 6:8; Col 3:24; Col 3:25. The result is “reward” or “loss” (of the reward), “but he himself shall be saved” 1Co 3:11-15.

This judgment occurs at the return of Christ Mat 16:27; Luk 14:14; 1Co 4:5; 2Ti 4:8; Rev 22:12.

See other judgments:

(See Scofield “Joh 12:31”) See Scofield “1Co 11:31” See Scofield “Mat 25:32” See Scofield “Eze 20:37” See Scofield “Jud 1:6” See Scofield “Rev 20:12”

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

we: Gen 18:25, 1Sa 2:3, 1Sa 2:10, Psa 7:6-8, Psa 9:7, Psa 9:8, Psa 50:3-6, Psa 96:10-13, Psa 98:9, Ecc 11:9, Ecc 12:14, Eze 18:30, Mat 25:31-46, Act 10:42, Act 17:31, Rom 14:10-12, 1Pe 4:5, Jud 1:14, Jud 1:15, Rev 20:11-15

receive: 2Co 7:3, 1Ki 8:32, 1Ki 8:39, Job 34:11, Psa 62:12, Isa 3:10, Isa 3:11, Mat 16:27, Rom 2:5-10, 1Co 4:5, Gal 6:7, Gal 6:8, Eph 6:8, Col 3:24, Col 3:25, Rev 2:23, Rev 20:12, Rev 20:13, Rev 22:12

in: Rom 6:12, Rom 6:13, Rom 6:19, Rom 12:1, Rom 12:2, 1Co 6:12-20

Reciprocal: Gen 49:10 – the gathering Jdg 11:27 – the Judge 2Sa 22:25 – recompensed Job 19:4 – mine Job 24:17 – in the terrors Psa 50:6 – God Psa 94:2 – thou Pro 24:12 – and shall Ecc 3:17 – God Isa 33:22 – the Lord is our judge Isa 51:5 – mine Jer 32:19 – to give Eze 33:20 – I will Mat 18:23 – which Mat 20:8 – when Mat 25:19 – reckoneth Mat 25:32 – before Luk 12:2 – General Luk 16:2 – give Joh 5:19 – for Joh 5:22 – General Joh 16:11 – judgment Act 2:36 – that same Act 24:25 – judgment Act 25:6 – sitting Rom 2:6 – General Rom 2:16 – God 1Co 4:4 – but 1Co 13:13 – charity Gal 6:5 – General 2Ti 4:1 – who Heb 4:13 – with Heb 6:2 – eternal Heb 9:27 – but Heb 10:30 – The Lord shall Heb 13:4 – God Heb 13:17 – give account Jam 3:1 – knowing 2Pe 2:9 – unto

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE CHRISTIAN AT THE JUDGMENT SEAT

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body.

2Co 5:10

Not so much a universal judgment hour is in view here, with its dread appeal to the universal conscience, as an investigation within the family circle of the disciplesa forum domesticumthe Lords particular scrutiny of His servant-brethren.

I. He has not left them unreminded in their service time that all these things are placed in their hands to hold, in the inmost truth of the matter for Him. The books must all be opened. And the opinion of the Supreme Examiner must be announcedto be remembered and to take effect for everyes, even amidst the conditions of the world of bliss.

II. There is serious reason why, precisely in our own period of time, this aspect of our years on earth should be put in prominence before us. Never was there an age whose characteristics have seemed in many respects so to cross and contradict each other, as do those of our own. It would be easy to argue for any one of many quite opposite assertions about the present day, and to maintain with equal plausibility, for example, that it was more strenuous or more purposeless, more light-minded or more overcast with a certain gloom than its forerunners. But we need not linger over comparisons or subtle equipoises of that sort before saying with confidence that for innumerable minds, above all in the more recent generations, born into a time already used to wide invasions of materialistic thought, one imminent danger of to-day is an oblivion of the whole ideal of the Christian life, not least upon the side of its grave but magnificent responsibility. The awe of responsibility is not felt as it was, even where the Lord is duly worshipped. The presence of Jesus Christ as Possessor and as Observer in the whole life, and over the whole field of gift and circumstance, is more feebly recognised by Christians. The confidence of faith in the eternal, now and here, and also in the eternal, as it looks upon us from beyond the tomb as a boundlessly living life to come, whose heart and bliss is the unveiled face of Christ, and whose law is His everlasting servicethis is not quite what it was in the current consciousness of Christian hearts. So there is need to think, to watch, to pray, till we get back into the power of that recollection again, alike for the animation of our hearts with the joy which is native to the Gospel, and for that purposeful remembrance of the eternal Master, and of His scrutiny to come, which is anything rather than a contradiction to that joy; no more such than fuel is a contradiction to the flame.

III. Is there not occasion for the appeal?Is the presence of things eternal felt in anything like the old force in our modern habits of thinking and of behaving? Is it a dominant power in the current ideals of the English home? Do we parents present as we should to our sons and daughters the prospect of life in its noble Christian gravity, its lofty aspect as the discipline and palstra of our being, in which, through faithful service here of God and of man, the whole responsible personality is to be trained for inconceivable activities and utilities, day without night, in the upper life, in the heaven of the sight of God? Are our common habits at all disciplined and informed by the elevating, the invigorating restraints of that recollected prospect? Or are they allowed to drift as they will from comfort to comfort, till the day knows no deliberate worship, and the week knows no Sabbath other than an interval of all too selfish indolence?

God grant us a revival, deep and large, of the Christian ideal of duty, not least within the home.

Bishop H. C. G. Moule.

Illustration

Two variations upon the English appear to be called for by the Greek of the Apostle. For the words We must all appear, we do well, with the Revisers, to read We must all be made manifest. It is to be not merely the putting in of an appearance, an adsum, a formal muster before the Princes chair; it is to be a making manifest, an opening out of characters, a showing up of all that the Christian has come to be through the use of faculty and circumstance, a disclosure and display of it before his Master, and his fellow-servants, and himself. Again, for the words, done in the body, we must unquestionably read, to be literal, done through the body. And why not accept the literal here as the true? The things in respect of which the man is to be made manifest are the things of his conduct in mortal life. And how can conduct in its development be more vividly presented to our thought or more significantly than as the things done through the body?

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

2Co 5:10. We must all appear is especially significant because Paul had referred to his responsibility regardless of when or how he would end his life. The thought is in keeping with his discourse delivered in Athens (Act 17:31), and with Peter’s statement in Act 10:42 that Jesus was ordained to be the judge of the quick (living) and the dead. Receive the things. The last word has no separate word in the original; the phrase means to receive something from the Judge in view of the things that were done while living in the fleshly body. According. This word has been perverted by those who wish to defend the heresy commonly called “degrees of reward and punishment.” Such a use of it wholly disregards Paul’s own application which is in the same verse, namely, whether the things done are good or bad. There are only two kinds of deeds that can possibly be done, and they come under one or the other of these two words. By the same token, there can be only two kinds of reward bestowed upon man, namely, a crown of life for the good or a sentence of death for the bad, and it will be administered according to whichever a man has done.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Co 5:10. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ (The word means more than appear: compare 1Co 4:5, till the Lord come . . . and make manifest the counsels of the heart),

that each one may receive the things done in the body (Gr. the things through the body)the organ of all human action,

according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The we all who are to appear together, refer specially here to the preachers and those they have preached to. (The universality of the judgment is expressed sufficiently elsewhere.)

Note.Three important points are made plain here: (1) That it is untrue that there will be no formal judgment of the righteous when Christ comes. For here the bad and the good meet together, to be both alike judicially treated; and whatever formality of judgment there may be in the process, it will be the same for both. And though our Lord says that on believing, men come not into judgment, but have passed from death unto life (Joh 5:24), this only means that on believing men cease to be in a condemned, and enter on a justified state, passing from death unto life. Hence (2) that there is no ground for alleging that the judgment of the wicked will take place a thousand years after the Lord comes, and consist exclusively of the wicked; nor (3) that after death saints, imperfectly sanctified here, will (whether by purgatorial fires or any otherwise) experience a change to greater perfection. For if it is on the deeds done in the body that the judgment is to be held, it follows that no change effected after they have left the body will be taken into account in fixing their final state.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

These words are fully descriptive of a future judgment.

In which observe, 1. The necessity of a future judgment, We must, willing or unwilling.

2. The universality of this judgment, We must all.

3. The person by whom, and before whom, we must be judged, Christ.

4. The manner of this judgment, All must appear, and be made manifest, both persons and actions.

5. The matter about which we shall be judged, The things done in the body.

6. The end of all this inquisiton, to be punished or rewarded according to our actions.

Learn, 1. That there will certainly come a day, when every person that ever lived in this world, shall be judged by Jesus Christ: We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Learn, 2. That every man’s judgment and sentence at the great day shall proceed and be pronounced according to what he has done in the flesh, be it food or bad, that every one may receive the things done in his body, &c.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Verse 10 To let down his guard would have been fatal since all deeds will be laid open before Christ’s judgment seat. Each will be rewarded on the basis of those deeds, so Paul took aim toward heaven to avoid missing being at home with the Lord.

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad. [Paul’s aspirations caused no laxity as to duty. He tried to so live as to please Christ now, and also when summoned before him; i. e., he strove to please Christ whether conscious of his presence or not, realizing that all his deeds would come to public and open manifestation and judgment. In thus outlining his own course, the apostle gave a salutary warning to his enemies that they should follow his example, and also gave them a tacit notice that, no matter how ill they might use him, they would still find him sustaining the conflict with untiring zeal.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

FINAL JUDGMENT

10. For it behooveth us all to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, in order that each one may receive according to those things which he did in the body, whether good or bad. Here is an allusion to the final Judgment, the grand appellate court of the universe, where every one will receive according to the things done in the body, whether good or bad. The final Judgment will not be determinative of human destiny so far as Heaven and Hell are concerned, for that is settled when you leave this world; but it will be vindicatory of the Divine administration and elucidatory of the infinitesimal degrees of reward on the part of the righteous and retribution appertaining to the wicked, the latter only being judged for the evil they have done as they lived and died in the devils kingdom, where it was impossible to do anything for God; and the former for the good they have done, their sins all being covered with the blood and not mentioned. Hence the judgment of the righteous will be exclusively on the grace side and that of the wicked altogether on the sin side, rewards and retributions being then and there settled for all eternity.

11. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and have been made manifest unto God: and we hope also to be made manifest in your consciences. The apostles claim here to be living in the light and approval of God, and having His holy reverence in their hearts and desiring that others may have the same.

12. Here is another castigatory allusion to his enemies, whom he charges with spiritual pride.

13. For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God: whether we are in our right minds, it is for you. His enemies in that day, as in all ages, accused him of insanity. When I was sanctified thirty years ago, all professing the experience were pronounced crazy. Lord, help us to appreciate the Pauline concession. If I am crazy, it is for the Lord.

14. For the Divine love of Christ constraineth us, judging this, that one died for all. Then were all dead. This is an unanswerable statement, forever settling the problem of universal total depravity. When God says dead, depend on it there is no life left. Here He says all dead. Hence there is no possible evasion of the conclusion of universal total depravity. The heredity also follows as an irresistible logical sequence, from the simple fact that it is impossible to transmit what we do not possess. Adam had no posterity during the period of spiritual life. Hence all the human race are the offspring of dead Adam. Christ never died for the living. It was not necessary.

15. And He died for all, in order that the living may no longer live unto themselves, but for Him who died in their stead, and arose again. These passages gloriously cover the ground of the vicarious atonement. These great truths, i. e., hereditary total depravity and the complete vicarious atonement, are fundamental in the revealed Word. If you are deficient there, your foundation is insecure. The sand will give way, and your superstructure will fall, sooner or later. We live in an age flooded with heresies. Solid gospel truth is much at a premium, because very scarce.

16. This verse does not prove that Paul had met Christ before His crucifixion, as he had finished his education at Jerusalem and gone back to Cilicia before our Lord entered upon His ministry, and returned no more to Jerusalem till after Pentecost, but he saw Him on the Damascus road and three years afterward in the temple at Jerusalem, when He gave him his commission to the Gentiles, calling him to the apostleship.

17. If any one is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, they have become new. All things (E. V.) in this passage is an interpolation, hence Zinzendorfian argument founded on it falls to the ground. It does not in the least favor the dogma of getting full salvation in regeneration. It simply says when you become a new creature, old things have passed away; behold, they have become new; i. e., your old habits, ways and works have passed away, and you have a new life in every respect. This does not imply the complete and radical renewal of your nature, nor argue that you may not profit by a second work of grace.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 10

Receive the things, &c.; receive according to the things, &c.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

5:10 {4} For we must all {h} appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.

(4) That no man might think that what he spoke of that heavenly glory pertains to all, he adds that every one will first render an account of his pilgrimage, after he has departed from here.

(h) We must all appear personally, and enquiry will be made of us, that all may see how we have lived.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

It is not only the hope of God’s positive provisions that should motivate the Christian, however. We must also bear in mind that we will have to account for our works when we meet the Lord. Then He will reward His children on the basis of their deeds. This is not a judgment to determine whether we will enter heaven but one to determine to what extent He will reward us who enter heaven (cf. Rom 14:10-12; 1Co 3:11-15; 1Co 4:5; 1Co 9:24-27). [Note: See Zane C. Hodges, Grace in Eclipse; and Arlen L. Chitwood, Judgment Seat of Christ, pp. 25-34.]

"The imagery used here for the future moment of eschatological revelation is that of the forensic process whereby the Roman governor sat on his tribunal to hear accusation and defense of an accused person standing before him. If he judged the accused guilty, the governor would order immediate punishment. Paul’s use of this language to the Corinthians may have been calculated; he himself had stood accused before the Roman governor Gallio in the Corinthian agora some years earlier (Act 18:12; Act 18:16-17), as the original members of the Corinthian church doubtless remembered." [Note: Barnett, p. 275.]

 

"The term for ’judgment seat’ [Gr. bema] is a normal one for the raised platforms from which governors could issue decrees or judgments, including the particularly impressive one excavated in Corinth (Act 18:12)." [Note: Keener, p. 181.]

The Greek word translated "bad" (phaulos) really means worthless. The idea is not that God will reward us for the good things we did and punish us for the bad things we did. He will rather reward us for the worthwhile things we did and not reward us for the worthless things we did (cf. Mat 6:19-21; 1Co 9:24-27). The worthwhile things are those that contribute to the advancement of God’s mission and glory in the world. Worthless deeds are those that make no contribution to the fulfillment of God’s good purposes (cf. Mat 25:14-30; Luk 19:11-27).

"The bad works are discarded as unworthy of reward but good works are rewarded. The penalty is limited to the loss of reward." [Note: John F. Walvoord, "The Church in Heaven," Bibliotheca Sacra 123:490 (April-June 1966):99. Cf. Hughes, p. 182.]

". . . believers do not face condemnation at Christ’s tribunal (see Rom 5:16; Rom 5:18; Rom 8:1) but rather evaluation with a view to the Master’s commendation given or withheld (1Co 3:10-15)." [Note: Barnett, p. 276.]

"Judgment on the basis of works is not opposed to justification on the basis of faith. . . . Yet not all verdicts will be comforting. The believer may ’suffer loss’ (1Co 3:15) by forfeiting Christ’s praise or losing a reward that might have been his." [Note: Harris, p. 349. Cf. 1 John 2:28.]

"The judgment seat of Christ might be compared to a commencement ceremony. At graduation there is some measure of disappointment and remorse that one did not do better and work harder. However, at such an event the overwhelming emotion is joy, not remorse. The graduates do not leave the auditorium weeping because they did not earn better grades. Rather, they are thankful that they have been graduated, and they are grateful for what they did achieve. To overdo the sorrow aspect of the judgment seat of Christ is to make heaven hell. To underdo the sorrow aspect is to make faithfulness inconsequential." [Note: Samuel L. Hoyt, "The Negative Aspects of the Christian’s Judgment," Bibliotheca Sacra 137:546 (April-June 1980):131. See also idem, "The Judgment Seat of Christ and Unconfessed Sins," Bibliotheca Sacra 137:545 (January-March 1980):38-39.]

". . . because much is required of those to whom much has been given, the thought of the judgment seat of Christ has for the Christian a peculiar solemnity. It is not meant to cloud his prospect of future blessedness, but to act as a stimulus, as strong a stimulus as the most imperious of human ambitions; for the word philotimoumetha, translated we labour (RV ’we make it our aim’), means literally ’we are ambitious’." [Note: Tasker, p. 82. See also Wall, pp. 31-38, for a fine popular explanation of judgment at the bema.]

Another notable feature of this verse is that Paul ascribed the role of judge to Jesus Christ, whereas in Jewish depictions of the judgment day Yahweh is the judge (cf. Joh 5:22; Rom 14:10).

Throughout this section, contrasts between the Spirit-imparted viewpoint on life and the natural viewpoint stand out. Some of the Corinthians were criticizing Paul because they were looking at his activities from the human viewpoint and were projecting that point of view onto him. They were concluding that he viewed life as they did. For their benefit he drew these contrasting views of life clearly.

The extent to which we view life from Paul’s spiritual viewpoint will be the extent to which we do not lose heart in our ministry.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)