2 Korintus 5:9-15

5:9 So then whether we are alive ¹  or away, we make it our ambition to please him. ²  5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ³  so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil. ⁴ 

The Message of Reconciliation

5:11 Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, ⁵  we try to persuade ⁶  people, ⁷  but we are well known ⁸  to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too. 5:12 We are not trying to commend ⁹  ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, ¹⁰  so that you may be able to answer those who take pride ¹¹  in outward appearance ¹²  and not in what is in the heart. 5:13 For if we are out of our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 5:14 For the love of Christ ¹³  controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ ¹⁴  died for all; therefore all have died. 5:15 And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised. ¹⁵ 

[5:9]  ¹ tn Grk “whether we are at home” [in the body]; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).

[5:9]  ² tn Grk “to be pleasing to him.”

[5:10]  ³ sn The judgment seat (βῆμα, bhma) 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.

[5:10]  ⁴ tn Or “whether good or bad.”

[5:11]  ⁵ tn Or “because we know what it means to fear the Lord.”

[5:11]  ⁶ tn The present tense of πείθομεν (peiqomen) has been translated as a conative present.

[5:11]  ⁷ tn Grk “men”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is generic here since clearly both men and women are in view (Paul did not attempt to win only men to the gospel he preached).

[5:11]  ⁸ tn Or “clearly evident.” BDAG 1048 s.v. φανερόω 2.b.β has “θεῷ πεφανερώμεθα we are well known to God 2 Cor 5:11a, cp. 11b; 11:6 v.l.”

[5:12]  ⁹ tn The present tense of συνιστάνομεν (sunistanomen) has been translated as a conative present.

[5:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to boast about us.”

[5:12]  ¹¹ tn Or “who boast.”

[5:12]  ¹² tn Or “in what is seen.”

[5:14]  ¹³ tn The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Χριστοῦ (Jh agaph tou Cristou, “the love of Christ”) could be translated as either objective genitive (“our love for Christ”) or subjective genitive (“Christ’s love for us”). Either is grammatically possible, but with the reference to Christ’s death for all in the following clauses, a subjective genitive (“Christ’s love for us”) is more likely.

[5:14]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “one”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:15]  ¹⁵ tn Or “but for him who died and was raised for them.”