2Cor 5:9-10 | NETfull | STEP | So then whether we are alive or away, we make it our ambition to please him.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10

9 So then whether we are alive ^{▼▼ Grk “whether we are at home” [in the body]; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).} or away, we make it our ambition to please him. ^{▼▼ Grk “to be pleasing to him.”} 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ^{▼▼ The judgment seat (βῆμα, bēma) was a raised platform mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly or making pronouncements, often on judicial matters. The judgment seat was a common item in Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora, the public square or marketplace in the center of a city. Use of the term in reference to Christ’s judgment would be familiar to Paul’s 1st century readers.} so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil. ^{▼▼ Or “whether good or bad.”}