2 Corinthians 5:9-11

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 

The Message of Reconciliation

5:11 Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, ⁵  we try to persuade ⁶  people, ⁷  but we are well known ⁸  to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too.

[5:9]  ¹ tn Grk “whether we are at home” [in the body]; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).

[5:9]  ² tn Grk “to be pleasing to him.”

[5:10]  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.

[5:10]  ⁴ tn Or “whether good or bad.”

[5:11]  ⁵ tn Or “because we know what it means to fear the Lord.”

[5:11]  ⁶ tn The present tense of πείθομεν (peiqomen) has been translated as a conative present.

[5:11]  ⁷ tn Grk “men”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is generic here since clearly both men and women are in view (Paul did not attempt to win only men to the gospel he preached).

[5:11]  ⁸ tn Or “clearly evident.” BDAG 1048 s.v. φανερόω 2.b.β has “θεῷ πεφανερώμεθα we are well known to God 2 Cor 5:11a, cp. 11b; 11:6 v.l.”