The Good and The Bad

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

2 Cor 5:6-10

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

NIV

We have arrived at a very theological moment that has had some interesting perspectives from various scholars. First, we should deal with the idea of either being at home in the body or away from it and at home with the Lord. Paul makes it very clear there is no intermediate place, we are either here or there. It is also right to expect that the moment we leave this body, that is our soul, who we are, this inner man, that we leave it behind and at once enter the presence of our Lord. There is the thought that when we die, we sleep, we remain asleep until the resurrection. But that is just not possible as this temporary tent is subject to decay and at some point, in that decay, it would in essence turn to dust. Where oh where would our soul be, left floating around asleep in the coffin waiting for the resurrection? This is not the theology of Paul, nor of the Spirit who inspired his words. The moment this body is finished, we leave it and step into the presence of our Lord. Now, because we are going to be in the presence of the Lord, we will also stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Here again, there is mixed theology regarding what happens as we appear before Christ and are judged for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. This has been portrayed by Hollywood in various ways, such as the Albert Brooks movie, “Defending your life”, where he dies and must endure being judged as they watch a video of the bad moments of his life, shown by the prosecution. This type of theology has also spawned the idea that there is punishment in heaven for every sin we have committed as well as a reward for every “good deed” that we have committed. So, then we must live a very pure life if we are to escape the judgment for the bad things we have done in the body. This is an impossible task that we will never be able to accomplish. Besides, that kind of thinking is inconsistent with the rest of the scripture. We know from the revelation that was given to John that at the judgment seat of Christ the scene is going to be a separation of the sheep from the goats. What this means is that all mankind is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and the good and bad that we are judged for is whether we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior and became sheep, or whether we rejected Christ and stayed goats. The good is accepting Jesus, the bad is rejecting Jesus. Because we are the sheep and He is the Great Shephard we will hear those words, “Enter into my rest” The others will hear something like, “Away from me, you evildoers” Therefore, while we are in the body, we make it our goal to remain in Christ, for He is our salvation. He has cleansed us from all our sin and declared us holy and blameless in His sight. Therefore it is not about how much good or bad each one of us does, but about who did the good, and who did the bad.