2 Corinthians 5:10

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 βῆμα, 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; 1 Thessalonians 4:6; Judges 14:15.