Third Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 — exegesis on the Epistle, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 — part 1

Readings for the Third Sunday after Trinity, Year B, 2024 can be found here.

An exegesis for the Gospel, Mark 4:26-34, can be found here.

The Epistle is as follows, emphases mine:

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17

5:6 So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord —

5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.

5:8 Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

5:9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

5:10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

5:11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences.

5:12 We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.

5:13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

5:14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

5:15 And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

5:16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

5:17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as specified below).

Here Paul discusses his passionate ministry and acknowledges, as he so often did, the false teachers who disparaged him.

False teachers dogged Paul after he planted or encouraged growth of a new church congregation begun by others.

Corinth was no exception. Opposition from infiltrators after he left was fierce. Paul defended himself to several congregations, not least the Corinthians.

Note that when Paul says ‘we’, he is referring to himself; it seems he thought it vulgar to refer to himself as ‘I’ so often in his letters.

He says that he is always confident, even though that while he is in his body, he is away from the Lord (verse 6).

Matthew Henry applies the verse to all believers:

Here observe, 1. What their present state or condition is: they are absent from the Lord (v. 6); they are pilgrims and strangers in this world; they do but sojourn here in their earthly home, or in this tabernacle; and though God is with us here, by his Spirit, and in his ordinances, yet we are not with him as we hope to be …

Paul says that he walks by faith, not by sight (verse 7), as do all who believe in Christ.

Henry explains, tying faith in with confidence from verse 6:

… we cannot see his face while we live: For we walk by faith, not by sight, v. 7. We have not the vision and fruition of God, as of an object that is present with us, and as we hope for hereafter, when we shall see as we are seen. Note, Faith is for this world, and sight is reserved for the other world: and it is our duty, and will be our interest, to walk by faith, till we come to live by sight … How comfortable and courageous we ought to be in all the troubles of life, and in the hour of death: Therefore we are, or ought to be, always confident (v. 6) …

Paul ties in the thoughts from the previous verses, affirming that he does have confidence and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord (verse 8).

Henry elaborates:

We are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body. True Christians, if they duly considered the prospect faith gives them of another world, and the good reasons of their hope of blessedness after death, would be comforted under the troubles of life, and supported in the hour of death: they should take courage, when they are encountering the last enemy, and be willing rather to die than live, when it is the will of God that they should put off this tabernacle. Note, As those who are born from above long to be there, so it is but being absent from the body, and we shall very soon be present with the Lord—but to die, and be with Christ—but to close our eyes to all things in this world, and we shall open them in a world of glory. Faith will be turned into sight.

John MacArthur takes the opportunity to explain what happens when we die and what happens at Christ’s Second Coming, which are two different things:

First Thessalonians 4 makes it very, very clear. It says, “For even” – verse 14 – “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first.” So, when do they rise? They rise when Christ comes; when He comes. “Then we who are alive and remain are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Well, He hasn’t come yet. So, the saints that have died, their spirits are in heaven, but they haven’t received their resurrection bodies yet. Their spirits are there.

You say, “Well, what are they like?” I don’t know. Their spirits are there, but they don’t have a form. Their presence is there, without that resurrection body. You say, “Do they have their earthly body?” No. You can check anybody’s grave; the earthly body is there, whatever’s left of it. They don’t have that. They’re in a spirit form, and Hebrews 12:23 says they are “the spirits of just men made perfect.” Their spirits have been made perfect. They’re perfectly holy, and righteous, and virtuous; they just have not yet received their resurrection bodies …

If you die before the Lord Jesus comes, there will be a period of waiting. Though the sting of sin is removed, there is still a period of waiting …

… you are talking about the realization that something has not yet occurred. You have an illustration of that, a perfect illustration of it, in Revelation 6. You have the martyrs who have been slain for their faith in Christ, and they are in heaven, under the altar in heaven, and they are praying, and they say, “How long, O Lord, will it be before You judge?”

So, they had a sense that something was yet to be accomplished. I don’t think there’s the sense of time – in fact, I know there’s not the sense of time in the eternal presence of God – but there is still the sense that something can be anticipated. It’s not hours, and days, and weeks, and months, and years, kind of anticipation; it’s not pulling dates off a calendar kind of anticipation; but there is the sense that something has not yet occurred. I don’t think it’ll be a – for them, it’s not some prolonged period of agonizing waiting.

MacArthur explains Paul’s desire to be with the Lord rather than here on earth:

Paul is simply saying, “If I have my choice, I want to go right out of this life, right into the next life, with the perfection that God has designed to give me in the image of Jesus Christ.” That’s what he’s saying. If he had his choice …

He was groaning for the perfection that his glorified body would bring. Look at verse 4 – and this kind of pulls it all together. “For indeed while we’re in this tent, we groan” – just like Romans 8:23, groaning for the redemption of our body – we groan.

And what are we groaning about? Being burdened, weighed down by afflictions, and weakness, and limitations, and particular by iniquities. Not because we want to be unclothed – we don’t want to just float around as disembodied spirits – “but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal” – that part of us which is mortal – “may be swallowed up by what is immortal, even eternal life.” It’s a wonderful thought. He’s saying, “I want the fullness of everything God has for me. I don’t want to float in the spirit all over eternity.

“I want to enter into my full and perfect condition in my glorified humanity. I want to be literally swallowed up by the fullness of all that eternal life can bring.” So, believers are not to be satisfied with the redemption of the soul; we long for the body, which is the image of Jesus Christ. And that’s why 1 John says that “when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And he that has this hope in Him purifies himself.” We should have that hope, the hope of a resurrection body, of a glorified body.

We can’t think of ourselves as a disembodied spirit. We know ourselves as a body, as a – as a contained spirit. And we’ll be contained in an eternally glorious spiritual body, and that’s what Paul longed for; what was holy, what was perfect, what was immortal, what was the fullness of God’s intention for his glorious life …

We were chosen, predestined, justified, sanctified, to be glorified, in order that we might be made like Christ. And to be made His image means to have both a resurrection body as well as a perfectly holy spirit; and so, here is Paul, looking at the purpose for which he exists. It transcends time. It’s from eternity to eternity. Planned in eternity past, fulfilled in eternity future; time is a blip in the middle. Sometimes we lose sight of this. Sometimes we think we fulfill our purpose here; we don’t.

Paul says that whether he is at home — on this earth — or away — in heaven — he makes it his aim to please Him (verse 9).

Some translations use ‘ambition’ for ‘aim’: a holy ambition to glorify Christ.

Henry puts this in light of our heavenly rewards to come:

Wherefore, or because we hope to be present with the Lord, we labour and take pains, v. 9. Philotimoumetha—We are ambitious, and labour as industriously as the most ambitious men do to obtain what they aim at. Here observe, 1. What it was that the apostle was thus ambitious of—acceptance with God. We labour that, living and dying, whether present in the body or absent from the body, we may be accepted of him, the Lord (v. 9), that we may please him who hath chosen us, that our great Lord may say to us, Well done. This they coveted as the greatest favour and the highest honour: it was the summit of their ambition.

As students of St Paul’s letters know, he put in his utmost on earth to save souls by bringing them to Christ through preaching the Gospel.

MacArthur reminds us of the essential role the Holy Spirit plays in conversion of the lost and the guarantee of salvation:

Nothing is going to separate you from the love of Christ … Romans 8 … goes on to say that nothing is going to be able to change it – not life, death, principalities, powers, not things to come, things present – nothing. The purpose of God is fixed, and to guarantee it, He gives us the Spirit as a pledge. Pledge is arrabōn in Greek; means engagement ring. It means down payment. It means first installment. It means pledge. It means security. It means guarantee.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee. The fact that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit which you have of God, the fact that the Spirit of God has taken up residence in you, and leads and guides you, as Romans 8 says. That you, by the Holy Spirit, can call yourself a child of God. The fact, as Romans 5:5 says, that the Spirit of God is shed abroad in your heart along with the love of God. The fact that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, that He abides in you, that every believer possesses the Holy Spirit, that Romans 8:9 says if you don’t have Him, you’re not a Christian.

He is the pledge. He is the guarantee that you will get to glory. It’s a tremendous truth. Back in chapter 1 of 1 – of 2 Corinthians, verse 22, he said this right off the bat in the beginning. “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God” – verse 21 – “who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” – as a down payment, as a guarantee. Ephesians, chapter 1, says it most explicitly, verse 13: “you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

The Holy Spirit is given as a guarantee that God is going to redeem His own possession and bring them to the praise of His glory. That’s why we talk about eternal security. That’s why it is ludicrous to believe that you could lose your salvation. It is absolutely absurd to believe that when you understand that this whole plan was set in motion in eternity past and will be brought to its fruition in eternity future, and you have the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, “who is the pledge of God’s promised inheritance to you in view of the redemption of His own possession to the praise of His own glory.”

You see, if you lost your salvation, who’s glory would be diminished? God’s. It would detract from His glory, because He couldn’t pull off His purpose. The culmination of God’s plan in redemption is to rescue His own possession, bring them to heaven, so they can be, forever, testimonies to His amazing glory. And all who are saved are saved because they will be brought to the intended purpose of God in redemption.

Therefore, Paul had a noble ambition to bring people to God.

MacArthur, like Henry, refers to philotimeomai:

The Greek term, philotimeomai, literally means to love honor or to love what is honorable. And it could refer to someone who, frankly, was consumed by the passion toward that which was most honorable, most exalted, most noble; somebody who was striving for the noblest of all goals, the love of what was truly honorable, truly elevated, truly excellent. Paul spoke of that kind of noble ambition. He said right here that he had ambition and it was indeed the noblest ambition because he desired to be pleasing to the Lord.

Paul spoke of the noble ambition of one who sought spiritual leadership. In 1 Timothy 3:1, he said, “If any man aspires to the office of an overseer or a pastor, it is a noble work he desires to do.” The New English Bible translates that same verse, “To aspire to leadership is an honorable ambition.” All of that to say there’s a place for noble ambition. There’s a place for a passion for what is excellent, what is lofty, what is elevated, what is good, what is best. Paul had that.

Ultimately:

… what he’s saying is whether I am living here in this life in my physical body, at home in my body, or whether I die and am absent from the body but present with the Lord, in either case my ambition is not altered.

Paul says, ‘for’ all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ — the bema — so that each of us may receive recompense for what has been done in the body — here on earth — for good or evil (verse 10).

I read that and thought of negative judgement.

However, MacArthur, who was a high school and university athlete, interprets it as reaping the heavenly rewards of victory, having completed the race of the Christian life with perseverance and honour:

Here is what he was concerned about, verse 10. The reason that we have as our ambition, whether we are at home in this body here or in a disembodied state, the reason that we want to be pleasing to Him is because – that’s what “for” means – “Because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” His ambition was driven by the reality that there is going to be an accounting for what he has done in his body.

He says at that time each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he’s done. You can’t disregard this body. You can’t just discard it in some antinomian or dualistic fashion and say it doesn’t really matter what you do. He faces a monumental event. And not only him, but everybody. Look at it in verse 10, “We must all appear.” That shows the comprehensiveness and the inevitability of this event. We’re all going to be there. We must all appear, phaneroō, to be made manifest, to be revealed, to be made clear …

I’m going to find out the real verdict on my life, the real verdict on my ministry, the real verdict on my service. This is not a judgment for sin. Sin was judged where? At the cross. And if sin became an issue at that judgment, then somehow the cross was incomplete. This is not a judgment on sin. And none of the texts that deal with this judgment seat of Christ – or as Romans 14 calls it, the judgment seat of God. None of them deal with sin as such. Sin has already been dealt with. But this is going to be the manifestation of our secret motives, secret attitudes so that we can see the reality of what we are.

And you know what that’s going to show us? That’s going to show us the amazing work that God has done in us. I think we’ll all be surprised. Not at what’s burned up, but at what’s left. That’s what I think. I think we’re all going to be able to praise God and praise God and praise God for – for the fact that through all the junk there was that gold, silver and precious stones there. It’s at that moment that all the hypocrisies, all the concealments, all the secrets, all the facades, all the wasted, worthless, useless stuff is all stripped away and the God, who according to 1 Samuel 16:7, looks on the heart, shows us what He sees. Here you are, John MacArthur, just exactly the way I see you. That’s what’s going to be revealed, and not to you but to me. You to you, me to me.

That’s why he says there in verse 10, “That each one may be recompensed for his deeds, according to what he has done, each one what he has done.” Now what is this term “the judgment seat of Christ”? Well, the judgment seat there is bēma in the Greek. And it just really means, literally means – I guess a simplest definition, a place reached by steps. In fact, that’s what it’s used to refer to in the Septuagint translation of Nehemiah 8:4, a place reached by steps. In ancient Greek culture it referred to the elevated platform where athletes who won events were taken to receive their crowns. They would march up like they do in the Olympics, right, on a platform to receive their crowns, award their – their wreath.

It also is used in the new Testament to refer to a place where judgment takes place. It is the term used to refer to Pilate’s judgment seat, John 19:13; Matthew 27:19, it definitely has the idea of judging there. With regard to athletes it has the idea of rewards. Any elevated place. This is the elevated place where Christ sits, as is very clear, because it’s called the judgment seat of Christ. It’s where the Lord is going to sit and He’s going to render the evaluation of our life for the purpose of rewards.

I see it much more in the – in the mode of – of the athletic than I do in the mode of the judicial. It’s a time of rewards. It’s the place of evaluation. It’s the place where our life and our works will be tested. Not our sins, but all the rest of the stuff in our life. And I’ll say more about that in a moment. So we’re all going to be there and everything is going to be made manifest. Our sin doesn’t need to be made manifest, that would literally be blasphemous, wouldn’t it? Because Jesus Christ has done the perfect work to deal with our sins. Our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, buried in the depths of the deepest sea, remembered no more. But there’s going to be an evaluation …

MacArthur posits that this is what the criteria are for heavenly rewards:

“Each one” – now, go back to 2 Corinthians 5 – “each one may be recompensed” – literally means to receive back, given back a fitting gift – “recompensed for the things done in the body.” Or “the deeds,” he says, “in the body, according to what he has done.” Recompensed, it just means that, to give back what is due. It could be a punishment for a criminal, it could be a reward for one to be honored. But notice what Paul says. When that day comes and we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, and He’s above us and looks down on us, and it is time for us to receive the reward, we are going to receive that reward based upon what deeds we have done in the what? In the body.”

… what have you done with your body that has eternal value? Not everything you do with your body has eternal value. Not everything you do with your body is sinful. There’s some stuff in the middle, like playing golf, taking a walk, going to the mall, painting your house, fixing your car, taking a drive in the country, pursuing a – a degree in education, moving up the ladder in your corporation, working here, working there, painting pictures, writing a poem, bouncing a baby. I mean life is filled with those things. Those are the kind of things that I think are the issue here, not sin.

And follow now verse 10, “We’re going to be recompensed for the deeds in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad.” And that “bad” is unfortunately misleading. It’s the Greek word phaulos. It is not ponēros, moral evil; it is not kakos, evil, iniquity. It is phaulos. it means worthless. It just means worthless, useless. And life is like that. I mean if you spend a day in the study of the Word of God, that is good. If you spend the same day in the mall, that may be worthless with an eternal perspective. You understand that?

Now, if you’re skipping through the mall singing hymns, that takes on a different character. I mean that, is that not fair to say that? Or if you stopped in the mall to share Christ with someone, it takes on a different character. Of if you’re buying something for someone in need and you take it to them and you give it to them to show the love of Christ, that takes on a different character. But life is full of all of that.

You say, “Could you please get back to golf? I want to know about golf.” Or tennis, or swimming or whatever other recreation you like. If in – if included in that is Christian fellowship, included in that is the joy of the beauty of God’s creation and the wonder of gratitude out of your heart for the goodness of His gifts in this world, it takes on a different character. But that’s the kind of stuff that’s going to be sorted out in this period of time that we call the judgment seat of Christ, or period of timelessness. It’s the time when God is going to take a look at our stuff and say is it good or worthless.

MacArthur cites 1 Corinthians 3 to illustrate the point that Paul makes there which will clarify 2 Corinthians 5:10:

Let’s go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Now again, I want to remind you, we’re not talking about sin here …

Verse 7, God gives the growth. Then verse 8, “Now he who plants, he who waters are one; but each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” What’s he talking about here? Christians being rewarded for their life effort, right? That’s what he’s talking about. Verse 8, that’s the context. He’s talking about rewards for your labor. And then in verse 9 he says, “You’re – you’re with us, we’re all God’s fellow workers, and you’re God’s field and God’s building.” We’re just talking about Christian service here, not sin.

And then he says in verse 11, All right, you lay the foundation of Christ, we’re all in Christ. And then you start to build your life. And you build your life and you’ve got six different kinds of things you can build with. You can build with gold, silver, precious stones, or you can build with wood, hay and straw. It’s your choice.” Now gold, silver and precious stones, I think, fit the example given here because they are indestructible. They – they’re – they’re valuable. They’re priceless, comparatively and they’re indestructible.

On the other hand, wood, hay, straw is relatively worthless and destructible. It’s not that it’s evil … it’s just that it has no lasting value. It illustrates what doesn’t last. And our lives are full of a lot of that stuff, aren’t they? It just doesn’t have any eternal consequence at all. And – and let me tell you right away, it doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Will you listen to that? It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, it just means you have to realize that it doesn’t have eternal consequence.

And that’s okay. The Lord has filled our lives with all kinds of wonderful things to enjoy that may not have implicit eternal consequence … So the point would be that while we do want to enjoy the things that don’t have lasting eternal value, we want to make sure we fill our life mostly with the things that do, right? And take the things that don’t and somehow put into them glory to God.

All right, let’s keep reading here in 1 Corinthians 3. So you’ve got your choice. You can build with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw. And then here we come again in verse 13. Notice the same phrase, “Each man’s work,” each one. Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 3, that little term “each man,” it again points up the individuality of this judgment. “Each man’s work will become evident. For the day will show it.” What day? The day of the judgment seat of Christ, the day when the Lord returns will show it. The very day he talked about in chapter 4 verse 5. When the Lord comes He will bring to light the things that are hidden in the darkness. “The day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.”

And that’s exactly what the judgment will be like. It’s like if you came walking up there and you had your whole basket full of gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and straw, and it was all put in the fire, and what would come out? Gold, silver, precious stones, not wood, hay and straw, it would be gone. That’s just the imagery, the illustration he’s using. The fire is going to test the quality of each man’s work. We’re talking about quality here, we’re not talking about moral good or evil. “If any man’s work that he has built upon remains, he’ll receive a reward.” Whatever had lasting eternal value, you’ll be rewarded for. “And if any man’s work is burned up, you’ll suffer loss, yes, but you will still be saved.” You see it there? “So as by fire.”

The issue is of rewards, not salvation. That’s why it says at the end of verse 5 in chapter 4 that every man will receive praise from God. So, the point is simply this. Paul says what motivates me is there’s coming a day when I’m going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and He’s going to take all the stuff of my life, all the activities of my life, and He’s going to just burn away the stuff that had no eternal value and what remains, the gold, the silver and precious stones, according to verse 14, is the substance of my eternal reward.

I hope that makes the believer’s experience at Christ’s judgement seat clearer. Did we win a prize in glorifying Him on earth or just an honorable mention?

I will continue and conclude with verses 11 through 17 tomorrow.