2 Corinthians 5:10

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 2 Corinthians 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. Matthew 27:19. And curiously enough, St. Paul himself was arraigned before the bema of the Roman Gallio at Corinth. Acts 18:12. And St. Paul is the only New Testament writer who appropriates the word to a Christian use, as he does in Romans 14:10 and this passage. Instead of the judicial bema, the regal throne is the word more ordinarily used. Matthew 25:31; Revelation 20:11; Daniel 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.