2 Corinthians 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

The confidence of the believers is here brought out in the most definite terms: Since we are therefore always of good courage and know that while in our home in the body we are absent from our home in the Lord. Because Paul and all believers have the earnest of the Spirit, feel His reassuring presence in their hearts through the Word at all times, they are always confident in consolation. And this is true, even though they know that while they are at home in this body, they are absent from the true, abiding home in the Lord. In this world we have but a short, temporary abiding-place which we call home for the time being; but there is a yearning for home, a homesickness for heaven, which always characterizes the believers. This is brought out also by the parenthetical sentence: For by faith we walk, not by appearance. Faith is the sphere in which we have our being here on earth, the state in which we must be found at all times; but when the fulfillment comes, we shall see and behold face to face what we here hoped and believed. Now we are absent from the Lord, away from home; then we shall be at home, where our citizenship has been since our conversion, Philippians 3:20.

But even as the Christians, the possessors of the Spirit's guarantee, have the feeling of courage and confidence predominant in their hearts at all times, so this feeling comes to the front especially and with the full measure of force when the time of their home-coming arrives: We are of good courage and well pleased rather to leave our home in the body and to be at home with the Lord. As pilgrims and strangers we live in this flimsy tent of our mortal body and move from one place to another, having here no continuing city. The prospect of death, therefore, far from filling us with fear and dismay, should rather inspire new hope, confidence, and courage in our hearts, since we know that, in spite of its dread aspect, it but opens to us the doors to our Father's home. Therefore we are rather well pleased, knowing that the Lord will accept us as His own and that His grace, which even here clothed us with the garments of salvation, will in that glorious home above put upon us the garments of His glory. We shall be at home with the Lord, in whose presence there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore, Psalms 16:11.

But with such a goal before him, the apostle keeps his heart and mind fixed upon the true home above: Wherefore also we make it our aim that, whether at home or absent from home, we may be well pleasing to Him. This state of mind is necessary if we wish to realize our hopes and ambitions; it means the working out of our own salvation with fear and trembling, with a singleness of heart which cannot be diverted from its purpose. For whether the Lord, at His coming, finds us in the body, still living in the tent of this mortal flesh, or out of the body, death having severed the soul from its frail habitation, one thing is certain, namely, that we at the present time strive to live in such a way as to please Him. And herein we are urged onward by the thought of the final Judgment: For we all must be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ, in order that every one may receive the things done by the body, according to what he did, whether good or bad. Christ is coming to judge all, the living and the dead: they will all have to appear before Him. Their characters, even their secret thoughts, will be laid bare to the world, to all men, as well as to themselves, just as they have always been known to the Judge. And when the sentence is passed, each one will receive the wages of his works which he did in the body, while he was in this world. Note that the power of judgment, although usually ascribed to the Father, against whom all sins are directed, Psalms 61:8; Jeremiah 17:10, is here, as in John 5:22; Matthew 25:31, and elsewhere, ascribed to the Son, a fact which places His deity beyond question. The judgment is inevitable, and it will be eminently just in every respect. Those that gave evidence of their unbelief by bad and wicked deeds will be recompensed in kind, by a punishment in proportion to their evil deeds. And those that have done good, thus giving evidence of the faith of their hearts, will receive a reward of grace at the hands of the Judge, which will make them partakers of the heavenly glory. Thus the thought of the future judgment is one of the reasons which incite and spur a Christian to a life of sanctification.