2 Corinthians 5:6-10

5:6 Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth ¹  we are absent from the Lord – 5:7 for we live ²  by faith, not by sight. 5:8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away ³  from the body and at home with the Lord. 5:9 So then whether we are alive ⁴  or away, we make it our ambition to please him. ⁵  5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ⁶  so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil. ⁷ 

[5:6]  ¹ tn Grk “we know that being at home in the body”; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).

[5:7]  ² tn Grk “we walk.”

[5:8]  ³ tn Or “be absent.”

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Grk “whether we are at home” [in the body]; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).

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

[5:10]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or “whether good or bad.”