So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. (7) For we walk by faith, not by sight. (8) We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (9) Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. (10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

The apostle Paul wrote the second letter to the Corinthians. He is defending his ministry and writing of things that really moved his mission as an apostle – Paul faced constant threats of death because of preaching the gospel. He is confident of his future in the heavenly unseen things; Paul knows that his present body is ephemeral and his place in heaven is eternal. There are indications that Paul expected the imminent return of Christ Jesus – not that He will come soon but that He COULD come. We are either in our mortal bodies and absent from the Lord or with the Lord and absent from our mortal bodies. The soul does not sleep. This strong statement tells us that at death we go immediately into the Lord’s presence – there is no purgatory. Paul here is not concerned about any judgment of man as the reality is we will be judged by God. Our deeds are already known by God but will be made manifest to us at judgment.

We must ALL by judged by God. There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust – one is the resurrection of life and the other of damnation. We cannot disregard this body – this earthly life. Sin has already been dealt with in Jesus Christ. Judgment is not to condemn the faithful but they are judged that each may receive his/her reward (wages) for things done while in their bodies and we will see the reality of what God has done in us. Everything worthless will be stripped away and revealed to us – a time of evaluation and rewards. Whatever we do in this body is going to be the issue at judgment.

c.s.Lewis put it so well in Mere Christianity: “Most of the man’s psychological makeup is probably due to his body: when his body dies all that will fall off him, and the real central man, the thing that chose, that made the best or worst out of this material will stand naked……..We shall then, for the first time, see everyone as he really was. There will be surprises.