2 Corinthians 5:9-10

5:9 So then whether we are alive ¹  or away, we make it our ambition to please him. ²  5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ³  so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil. ⁴ 

¹ tn Grk “whether we are at home” [in the body]; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).

² tn Grk “to be pleasing to him.”

³ sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bhma) was a raised platform mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly or making pronouncements, often on judicial matters. The judgment seat was a common item in Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora, the public square or marketplace in the center of a city. Use of the term in reference to Christ’s judgment would be familiar to Paul’s 1st century readers.

⁴ tn Or “whether good or bad.”