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2Co_5:10. Objective motive of this strivin.
τοὺς γὰρ πάντας ἡμᾶς ] no one excepted. It applies to all Christians; comp. Rom_14:10.
δεῖ ] a divine appointment, which is not to be evade.
φανερωθῆναι ] This does not imply “the concealment hitherto of the dead” (de Wette), for the living also are judged, but means: manifestos fieri cum occultis nostris (Bengel, comp. Beza). Comp. 1Co_4:5; Rom_2:16. Thus it is distinguished from the mere παραστῆναι , 2Co_4:14, Rom_14:10, for which Grotius takes it; and it is arbitrary to declare this distinction unnecessary (Rückert), since that conception corresponds alike with the word (comp. 2Co_5:11) and the fact. Comp. Chrysostom and Theodore.
κομίσηται ] Moral actions are, according to the idea of adequate requital, conceived as something deposited, which at the last judgment is carried away, received, and taken with us, namely, in the equivalent reward and punishment. Comp. Eph_6:8; Col_3:25; Gal_6:7; Mat_6:20; Rev_14:13.
τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος ] sc. ὄντα , that which is brought about through the body, that which has been done by means of the activity of the bodily life ( τὸ σῶμα as organic instrument of the Ego in its moral activity generally; hence not: τῆς σαρκός ). Comp., on διὰ τοῦ σώματος , expressions like τῶν ἡδονῶν αἱ διὰ τοῦ σώματός εἰσιν , Plat. Phaed. p. 65 A; αἰσθήσεις αἱ διὰ τοῦ σώματος , Phaedr. p. 250 D, al.; Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. iv. 5. 3.[220] Instead of Luther’s: in the life of the body (so also de Wette and many others), through the life of the body would be better. There is no reason for taking the διά merely of the state (2Co_3:11). The thought of the resurrection-body, with which the recompense is to be received (to which view Osiander, following the Fathers and some older commentators, is inclined), is alien to the context (2Co_5:6; 2Co_5:8-9); besides, merely διὰ τοῦ σώμ . would be used without τά .
The πρὸς ἃ ἔπραξεν contains the standard of righteousness, in accordance with which every one κομίσεται τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος : corresponding to what he has done.
εἴτε ἀγαθὸν , εἴτε κακόν ] sc. ἔπραξε . The recompense of the wicked may take place as well by the assigning of a lower degree of the Messianic salvation (1Co_3:15; 2Co_9:6) as by exclusion from the Messianic kingdom (1Co_6:9 f.; Gal_5:21; Eph_5:5).
[220] The reading τὰ ἴδια τοῦ σώματος (Arm. Vulg. It. Goth. Or. twice, and many Fathers), which Grotius and Mill approved, is to be regarded as a gloss, in which τὰ διά was meant to be defined more precisely by τὰ ἴδια . In the Pelagian controversy the ἴδια acquired importance for combating the doctrine of original sin, because children could not have done any ἴδια peccata, and hence could not be liable to judgment. On the other hand, Augustine, Ep. 107, laid stress on the imputation of Adam’s sin, according to which it was the moral property even of children.
REMARK.
Our passage does not, as Flatt thought, refer to a special judgment which awaits every man immediately after death (a conception quite foreign to the apostle), but to the last judgment conceived as “near; and it results from it that, according to Paul, the atonement made through the death of Jesus, in virtue of which the pre-Christian guilt of those who had become believers was blotted out, does not do away with the requital of the moral relation established in the Christian state. Comp. Rom_14:10; Rom_14:12; 1Co_4:5. They come in reality not simply before the judgment (to receive their graduated reward of grace, as Osiander thinks), but into the judgment; in Joh_3:18, the last judgment is not spoken of, and as to 1Co_6:2 f., see on that passage. Paul, however, does not thereby say that, if the Christian has fallen and turns back again to faith, the atonement through Christ does not benefit him; on the contrary, the μετάνοια of the Christian is a repetition of his passing over to faith, and the effect of the atonement (of the ἱλαστήριον ) is repeated, or rather continues for the Christian individual, so that even the Christian sins are blotted out, when one returns from the life of sin into that of faith. But the immoral conduct of Christians, continuing without this μετάνοια , is liable to the punishment of the judgment, because they in such an event have frustrated as to themselves the aim of the plan of redemption. Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 379. This in opposition to Rückert’s opinion, that Paul knows nothing of a continuing effect of the merit of Christ. This continuing effect is implied not only in the general Pauline doctrine that eternal life is God’s gift of grace (Rom_6:23), and in the idea of Christ’s intercession (Rom_8:34; comp. Heb_7:25; Heb_9:24; 1Jn_2:1-2), but also in passages like 2Co_7:10, compared with Rom_5:9-10; Rom_5:17. We may add the apt remark of Lücke on 1 John, p 147: “As a single past and concluded fact, it (Christ’s atoning work) would be just a mere symbol; it has full truth only in its continuing efficacy.”