“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV)
If we truly believe that we are going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ when we leave this body, our goal in this life will be to please Christ.
The way the pronouns we and us and you are used in chapters 4 and 5 reveal that Paul is explaining his ministry and the motivation behind his ministry to a group of Christians who have benefited from that ministry. There are differences between what an apostle or an apostle’s companion experience in life, and what a Christian experiences in ‘normal’ church and work life. Yet Paul uses the phrase “we must all” when talking about appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. The judgement seat is not just for apostles, pastors, missionaries, or full-time ministry workers, but also for every single Christian no matter how obscure we might be in the kingdom. To confess Christ as Lord is to call yourself His servant, and places you under His judgment. This verse tells us that what we do in our bodies as a Christian is very important- some like to pretend that what we do in our bodies doesn’t matter at all for we are forgiven through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore we have a permission slip or a get out of judgment slip - to believe that you would have to ignore this verse and many of the parables that our Lord told. A far better plan of action would be to memorize this verse and then meditate on it, and begin to live our lives in light of the truth that we live our lives on a stage and the only Person in the audience is our Lord. To have this mindset coupled with the belief that He could jump up at any moment and end our play will make us ready to meet our God.
Come Lord Jesus Come!
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