we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
Paul is writing about death and what lies beyond it. His words raise two questions: what happens to a believer between death and resurrection, and how anyone can face death with courage instead of dread.
Paul's two words are pictures of a house. Older translations print them as "present" and "absent," and one writer, speaking at a graveside, explains them:
In this passage the word translated "present" means "at home with," and the word translated "absent" literally means "to be away from home." Our beloved sister was taken from us so suddenly three days ago. She is clearly away from home as to the body, since we have put it in the grave. But that she is at home with the Lord is not evident if we judge by sight or appearances. It is only as we walk by faith that this fact becomes real to us.
One writer traces that confidence to what God has already done and given:
God has prepared all of us Christians for the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He has not given it to us yet, but He has prepared us for it. He has also given us the Spirit as the pledge. This is what gives me confidence. He calls it "our house," not my house. So I have two certainties. I am prepared for it, and I know it now while I am here, because God has given me the Holy Spirit.
Another writer asks where such willingness comes from, and answers from Christ's death:
It is unusual to find men willing to be absent from the body. Even the devil once said, "All that a man has he will give for his life." So we have to ask what the ground of the apostle's confidence was. His own words in Romans 5:8 tell us all we need to know: "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Know this and believe it, and all dread of death leaves the soul.
Paul does not say he wants to die. He says he prefers it to staying here:
The apostle never says that he desired to be absent from the body, but that he was willing rather. That is, it was not the object of his desire, but he preferred it to being in the body… He knew God had prepared him for this glory, and he had received the Spirit as the pledge. So if death did come, he was no less confident. And please remember that he had actual death right in front of his eyes.
What he actually longed for stands a few verses earlier, and it is something better still:
Here he speaks of what is best of all. "We groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling… not that we would be unclothed" — that is, death and the separate state — "but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." He longed for the change at Christ's coming.
One writer describes where believers are now, and what they still wait for:
Paul's confidence was such that he was willing — more than willing, pleased — to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. This is his portion today, and the portion of all who have died in the faith of Christ. They are absent from the bodies which have been laid in the grave, waiting for the moment when they will be clothed in bodies of glory. But even now they are present with the Lord, in all the conscious blessedness of His presence.
One writer warns against two opposite mistakes:
On one side, there is no excuse for the unbelief which makes everything of going to be with Christ after death. It stops short of the only adequate answer: our resurrection and change at Christ's coming. On the other side, it is a real slight on God's grace and on Christ's redemption to darken the state of the soul apart from the body, so as to heighten the splendour of the resurrection morning… To be with Christ is far better than remaining in the flesh, though far short of the triumph we shall share when He comes.
This prospect also shapes life now:
The prospect braced up the soul of the apostle, stirring him to tireless zeal in everything he did, so that he sought only the approval of Christ. In fact, this is exactly what it does for us. It enables us to bring all our actions into the light of His presence now, and helps us to do them for Him and to Him. This is where our strength lies.
- Home — "Present" and "absent" are house words. Away from the body means at home with the Lord. Faith sees this, not sight.
- Ground — Courage rests on what God has done. He prepared us for glory and gave the Spirit as the pledge, and Christ died for sinners.
- Preference — Paul does not desire death; he prefers it to staying. His full hope is resurrection and change at Christ's coming.
- Interval — Those who have died are with the Lord now, awake to His presence, still waiting for bodies of glory. Writers warn against both overstating and darkening this state.
- Result — This hope is not idle comfort. It fuels a life aimed at pleasing Christ, doing everything in the light of His presence.
Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to him.
Paul has just spoken of the believer's confidence, and now he draws the practical conclusion. Everything turns on two words. What is the "aim"? And does "please him" mean earning God's welcome, or delighting the One who has already welcomed us?
The older English rendering reads, "that we may be accepted of him." One commentator warns that this wording, taken at face value, overturns the gospel:
The common version gives a completely misleading idea. If anyone took it in fully, it would destroy the gospel. The danger is greater because the translators put philotimoumetha as "we labour" or "endeavour," and euarestoi as "accepted." That comes dangerously close to suggesting salvation by works in the most open way. Already accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1) we aspire — it is our zealous aim — to serve Him well, whether present or absent. His favour is better than life, so we devote ourselves to the pleasure of the One who delights only in what is good, holy, true, lowly and loving.
The Greek word itself is the evidence. The same translators handled it differently everywhere else:
Euarestos occurs nine times in the New Testament. Translators render it "acceptable" four times, "well-pleasing" four times, and "accepted" only once — here in 2 Cor. 5:9. Why they translated it that way in this one place, I do not know. We may well take our pen and strike out the word "accepted," and put in the word "well-pleasing."
Paul's verb here carries the sense of ambition.
The word used here is "ambition." The literal translation is, "Therefore we are ambitious." Another rendering is, "We make it our aim." It was true that the apostle groaned, longing for his house from heaven. But as long as the Lord left him here, he was ambitious to please Him.
Because it is an ambition, it competes with other ambitions:
What more beautiful ambition for every true Christian — to be "well-pleasing" to the Lord, no matter whether it is in life or in death. Worldly ambition has brought ruin to multitudes of the Lord's soldiers and servants. All around us we see loved saints of God whose lives announce their ambition for riches or honour or ease or learning or fame. But how rarely do we meet someone whose ambition in life is to preach the gospel where Christ is not known, and, whether in life or in death, to be well-pleasing to Him.
Paul aims at one Person only, and holding that aim costs something. The translation he quotes reads "agreeable to Him."
This speaks of Paul's desire, his ambition toward God. He did not have the approval of man in view. He was not concerned about the honours of this world. His one thought was, as he says elsewhere, to be "agreeable to Him." That meant a pathway completely separated from the current of man's mind. But it brought the joy and peace and triumph that belong to a walk in communion with God.
Keep two acceptances apart. One settles a sinner's standing. The other is a servant's commendation.
Always remember this: absolute trust in God as our Saviour is the sole foundation of all acceptable service in His sight. In this verse the apostle says nothing about our personal acceptance as forgiven sinners... To draw from such a text the idea that a believer's escape from wrath is still uncertain, you must first shut your eyes to the whole drift of the apostle's teaching. You must confuse two very different things: acceptance with a Saviour, and acceptance with a master. One is a believer's standing as an heir of grace. The other is Christ's commendation of His chosen when their race is done.
The next verse gives the reason, and it has a practical effect:
In short, the judgment seat of Christ brings everything to light and rewards it. That solemn fact tends to check all lightness and laziness. It makes us eager to respond to the grace that wants to reward all that was done according to the mind of the Holy Spirit. To this end we need earnestness in the study of the Word, and diligence in prayer, so that we may know and be led into right activities.
Pleasing Him starts with knowing Him:
To be well-pleasing to any person you must know him. It is the same with your Lord. You cannot know Him closely and well if you do not spend much time with Him. You must live to Him and not to yourself... Remember that when He chose His apostles, it was not first of all so that He might send them out to preach, but that they might be with Him. The preaching followed that.
- Accepted first. God has already taken the believer into favour in the Beloved. Verse 9 starts from there.
- Acceptable next. The Greek word means "well-pleasing," not "accepted" — the aim is to please a Master, not to win a Saviour.
- Ambition, not duty. Paul's word is the language of ambition, and it competes with the ambition for riches, honour, ease and fame.
- Either way. In life or in death, the aim never changes.
- Rewarded. The judgment seat brings everything to light and rewards it. That prospect turns ambition into study of the Word and prayer.
For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, that each may receive the things [done] in the body, according to those he has done, whether [it be] good or evil.
Paul turns from how a Christian lives now to where that life ends up: in full view of Christ. Two questions follow. How can people whose sins the cross has settled still stand before a judgment seat? And what do they "receive" there?
The word translated "appear" means more than turning up. Older translations read "be manifested."
The word "appear" in verse 10 is "manifested." We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ. Our works and our ways as Christians will then come fully into view. Everything will come into the light. Nothing can be hidden, and the believer receives the things done in the body.
For the believer, that moment brings sight, not sentence.
When the believer appears before the judgment seat of Christ, he won't be judged in the sense of condemned. That matter was settled at Calvary. But he will be revealed. It should be a joy for the believer to think that then, for the first time, he will see his own life exactly as the Lord Jesus sees it. And in our glorified bodies we will completely agree with this judgment.
How wide is "we all"? One writer reads it broadly, and shows why Paul's wording still guards the believer:
The context seems to show that Paul's statement is general, in that it includes believers and unbelievers. But since believers will be there, he does not say, "We must all be judged." He says, "We must all be manifested." Perhaps for the same reason, he does not speak of judging persons, but of "the things done in the body." Remember too that we reach the judgment seat of Christ by the coming of Christ, and by it we shall be "changed into the image of the heavenly." So when we stand there we shall have a body of glory like Christ; we shall be like the Judge.
If Christ is the one seated there, the outcome for His own is already settled by who He is to them.
The Lord Jesus will sit on the judgement seat. He died for believers' sins and rose again for their justification. He is the believer's righteousness, and He will not judge His own work. God has justified the saint, so the saint cannot be judged. John 5:24 says he does not come into judgement at all. But he will be manifested. The things done in the body will be brought into review. He will then see it all in its true light, whether good or bad, and this will only exalt the grace that has saved him.
Believers reach that seat by way of Christ's coming, changed into His likeness. So the fitness required there is not the fitness of a needy sinner.
Many a sincere person — I mean a sincere Christian — does not see this place of his in Christ. He may say, I am a poor sinner, and the cross just suits me. Blessedly true. But change the phrase: I am a poor sinner, and the judgment-seat just suits me! That will not do. Yet we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ. There we must be fit for the judge.
Paul's phrase reaches beyond service for the Lord.
It will also mean reward or loss, according to what has been done "in the body" — that is, in the whole of our lives of responsibility here. We see the same thing in 1 Corinthians 3:14-15. But there the question is the character of our work as servants of the Lord. Here it is more general and comprehensive, being a question of all our actions and ways.
Everything that comes out has a result, and the outcome is accepted without complaint:
Even in the saints, not all had been good. Everything has its result, though it never endangers the grace that saved them by Christ. God is not unrighteous, so He will not forget the work of faith and labour of love. Failure and wrong bring loss. The soul itself will understand fully, bow in adoration without a murmur, and bless Him who orders the place of each in the kingdom.
This truth is meant to shape life now.
Then, for the first time, we shall judge everything truly. We shall understand the perfection of Christ's grace all through. We shall see how wrong and mistaken we have been in many ways down here. To limit the judgment seat of Christ to a reward for works robs it of much of its practical power.
Christians who dread that day have misjudged it:
Many, when they stand before that judgment seat, will wonder why they ever feared it for themselves. They will see their mistake and adore the grace that has been so much better than all their legal fears.
- Manifested, not tried. "Appear" means shown. The believer's works come into the light, but the believer never comes into judgment.
- The Judge is the Saviour. He died for those sins and is the believer's righteousness — He will not judge His own work.
- Like the Judge. We reach that seat changed into Christ's likeness, so the light falls on someone already like the One seated there.
- The whole life. "The things done in the body" covers all our actions and ways, not just service — and it brings real reward and real loss.
- Its power is now. Treat it as a prize-giving and it loses its force. Take it seriously and it shapes how you live today.