2 Corinthians 5:10

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

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.

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, . The word translated appear, is pefanerwsyai, 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, : These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Hence we read, , of a resurrection of life, and a resurrection of damnation.

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, Luke 14:12. On that day Adam shall see all his nephews together. Appear before, &c.] Be laid open, and have all ripped up, φανερωθηναι. 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.

(10) For we must all appear.—Better, must all be made manifest. The word is the same as that in 1 Corinthians 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 1 Corinthians 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 (Matthew 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. Matthew 27:19; Acts 12:21; Acts 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 judge’s seat, but for the orator’s 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 men’s hearts, awarding to each man according to his works. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 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. Paul’s eschatology here and in 1 Corinthians 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 Romans 5:17-18; Romans 11:32. At times, again, he speaks as if sins were washed away by baptism (1 Corinthians 6:11), or forgiven freely through faith in the atoning blood (Romans 3:25; Ephesians 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 (Romans 8:3), by the certainty of a sentence of acquittal (Romans 8:1).

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] κομισηταιεκαστος. 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.

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. Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 14:10. Observe that ‘God’ is the word used in the latter passage, as though “the two ideas were convertible.” Stanley. The âῆ ?ìá, 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. Romans 2:5-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:6; Judges 14, 15.

For we must - (δεῖ dei). It is proper, fit, necessary that we should all appear there.

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.