2 Corinthians 5:10

τοὺς γὰρ πάντας κ. τ. λ.: for (explanatory of the reason of our desire to be “well-pleasing” to Him) we all (τοὺς πάντας is emphatic, not only Paul who has been speaking of himself as ἡμεῖς, but “all of us” quick as well as dead) must be made manifest. The A.V. “appear” weakens the force of the word; the Day of Judgment is to be a day when men's characters shall be made patent to the world, and to themselves, as they have always been to God; cf. Mark 4:22; Romans 2:16; Romans 14:10, 1 Corinthians 4:5; Revelation 20:12. ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ βήμ κ. τ. λ.: before the judgment-seat of Christ. In the N.T. (see reff.) βῆμα is always used (except in the quotation Acts 7:5) of the official seat of a judge, although twice in the LXX (Nehemiah 8:4 2Ma 13:26), as generally in classical Greek, it stands for the pulpit from which a formal speech is made. ἵνα κομίσηται ἕκαστος κ. τ. λ.: that each one may receive, i.e., obtain the wages of (see reff.), the things done through the medium of the body (cf. Plato's phrase αἰσθήσεις αἱ διὰ τοῦ σώματος, cited by Meyer; there is no need to identify διὰ τοῦ σώματος with ἐν τῷ σώματι of 2 Corinthians 5:6 as the A.V. and R.V. do) according to what he did, sc., in this present life (note the aorist and cf. Luke 12:47), whether it be good or bad (cf., for this constr. of εἴτε … εἴτε, Ephesians 6:8; Philippians 1:18). Similar expressions are used of a future judgment, at, e.g., Ps. 61:13, Proverbs 24:12; Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 32:19 (cf. Job 34:11 ?) in the O.T., and in the N.T. at Romans 2:6; Romans 14:12; 1 Peter 1:17, in all of which passages the power of judgment is ascribed to the Eternal Father. But He “hath given all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22), and thus Christ is repeatedly spoken of as the future Judge of men, e.g., Matthew 16:27; Acts 17:31; Revelation 2:23; Revelation 22:12, and esp. Matthew 25:31-46. Cf. Luke 21:36, σταθῆναι ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. And so (from the present verse) the variant Χριστοῦ has crept into the parallel passage, Romans 14:10, πάντες γὰρ παραστησόμεθα τῷ f1βήματι τοῦ Θεοῦ. A reference to the O.T. parallels makes it tolerably plain that the statement that men will be judged according to their works is a broad and general one, and that to find a difficulty, as the Fathers did, in the case of the death of infants (whether baptised or unbaptised), who are incapable of self-conscious and voluntary actions, is quite perverse.