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 earth11 we are absent from the Lord—5:7 for we live12 by faith, not by sight. 5:8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away13 from the body and at home with the Lord. 5:9 So then whether we are alive14 or away, we make it our ambition to please him.15 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,16 so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil.17

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11	tn Grk “we know that being at home in the body”; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).
12	tn Grk “we walk.”
13	tn Or “be absent.”
14	tn Grk “whether we are at home” [in the body]; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).
15	tn Grk “to be pleasing to him.”
16	sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bēma) 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.
17	tn Or “whether good or bad.”