2 Corinthians 5 (Part 1)

We're in 2 Corinthians. Open your Bible there, please. 2 Corinthians. We're going to pick up, start here in chapter 5 today. Really good stuff that we're going through here. When we ended last week in chapter four, Paul was talking about the kind of sufferings that we deal with in this life, the kind of challenges, difficulties, and problems that we have in this life, and they're fairly significant, wouldn't you agree? I mean, at least if you're going to judge that based on our complaints, I'd say they're fairly significant, but you remember what Paul said at the end of chapter four? He said, he talked about our problems in this life as fleeting, something that's just, and he said, it cannot even be compared with the glory that awaits us. Now with that idea of glory, Paul is going to springboard into one aspect of that, which is the new resurrection bodies that we're going to be getting, but I want to read the last three verses of chapter four to just help bring us together in what we're doing here in five, so would you look with me, please, at verses 16, 17, and 18 of chapter 4. And it says, 16 “So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (and here's where he says) 17for this light momentary affliction, (that's our problems today) is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison 18as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. (And then he ends by saying) for the things that are seen are transient, (meaning they're moving) but the things that are unseen are fixed and eternal.” And again that remark about the glory that is coming to you and I brings now, Paul, to what we call 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and this section on our new physical bodies, which, by the way, the older I get is something I'm looking forward to more and more. Let's read the first 10 verses. Here we go, and then we'll pray.

Stop there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, open our hearts to the things that we've looked at here, that we've read in these first 10 verses. Give us spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear. Father, I pray that You would just eliminate distractions in our hearts right now. Even thoughts that are taking us away from really digging into the Scripture. We ask You, Lord God, to just clear away all that might interrupt, and lead us, Father God, in studying Your Word, for You are the Teacher, and we ask it in Jesus name, amen. I love how Paul begins in this very first verse by saying, “We know.” And that's very confident, He likes to say that, by the way. That's one of Paul's favorite phrases when he's about to talk about something that's true he'll say, we know, you know, we know. Right? Have you ever talked to somebody that uses that? Well, but this is the deal, sort of a thing, and that's what Paul is saying here. “We know,” here verse 1, and what is he saying that we confidently know? “We know that this, if this tent that we live in,” and he's referring to our physical, earthly bodies, “if this tent that we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Every so often I like to look up these verses in modern, a little bit more dynamic sort of translations that put a little more to it and I looked at it in the New Living

Translation (NLT), and I want to share it with you on the screen here, because it's interesting. He says, 2 Corinthians 5:1 (NLT)

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, (we all know what it's like to take down a tent, I assume. And parenthetically) that is, when we die and leave this earthly body, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.” I just think it's kind of nice sometimes, fun to read things in a different translation. This is the essence of what Paul is saying in this first verse, and it's something we know. At least it was something he knew. I think that the force of Paul's confidence when he says, we know this, is because in the early church, this was something they emphasized a lot. They talked about it a lot, they talked a lot about what is to come. They didn't focus so much on this life, they focused on the life to come. Obviously they dealt with issues related to life but the majority of their focus was on God fulfilling His promises, for the coming of the Lord and all the things that would be made new and so forth, and it seems today that as much as the early church focused on the world to come, we seem to be more focused on this world and this life. I don't hear Christians talking very much about what is to come. I hear them really fixated on what is happening right here, right now, in my life. What is good, what is bad, and so forth and so on. And not that we can ignore those sorts of things, but it just seems like when we talk, when we take time to talk about what is to come, it's like the conversation moves to something that we just can't really seem to grasp very well. Like we're talking about science fiction, which we all know isn't really true, but it's just fun to think about. Well, the fact of the matter is, God has promised you and I that there is more than this life that awaits us. And one other interesting thing to note about this verse 1 is how Paul refers to our physical bodies. Did you notice he calls them a tent? I don't know how many of you have ever slept in a tent or stayed in a tent, but you feel pretty exposed to the elements. It's pretty vulnerable, to the elements and so forth. I got this wonderful text message from my daughter, my oldest daughter, about, oh, it was a few weeks ago. They were up at Ponderosa. I don't want to scare anybody about family camp coming up, but there was a bear going through the campground about midnight. And, it wasn't there to bother anybody, he was just there to rummage through the garbage cans, and he was doing it rather loudly, and, of course, woke up most of the camp, and especially those who were in tents. And of course, there's, she sends me this text, like, at midnight. There's a bear going through the camp! And like there was anything I could do about it from here, go away, bear! He's like, that's what your husband is for, sweetie. But I understand that when you're in a tent, you feel vulnerable when something like that happens, or if it's raining really hard, or really windy, and you're wondering, man, is this thing, did we stake it down good enough? Because everybody knows that a tent is pretty vulnerable to the elements, and we also know that it's a temporary dwelling. There's nothing permanent about a tent. The other thing we know about tents is that they wear out. They, don't age particularly well and that's what Paul uses when he talks as a picture, when he talks about his physical body. And I get the impression as I listen to Paul, as he writes that he, it really doesn't bother him much, this idea that his physical body is likened unto a tent, which isn't going to last very long. I mean, look again at verse 1. He says, listen, “we know that if this earthly tent, this earthly home thing is destroyed. We know we've got a building from God.” He's like, no big deal. We know that. We know that if this thing is destroyed, we know that it's going to, it's not if, it's going to die, right? We know that we've got something better, right? And, I just, I love that confidence and the faith that he declares in that confidence that this body is going to wear out. It's going to get old and it's going to collapse and it'll be done sort of a thing. One day, which, I don't know if you've ever read the ads like, those of you who have a Facebook account. The ads on Facebook are just really crazy. You look at them and you would think that there's something really strange about growing old, or something that people, like, didn't expect. I constantly see ads that say things like, this home improvement star was stunning in the nineties, but what she looks like today will shock you.

--- You mean she got old? Wow. Who knew? It's like, what in the world? Of course, what's going on? They want you to click on that link so they can make you look at a whole bunch of different advertisements and so forth, but the attitude is that they're baiting you to do this with an idea that is going to draw you in, and the idea is that aging is just the weirdest thing. It's as if the people who write those ads don't do it. They just show you pictures of people who do age, sort of a thing. Valerie Bertinelli was gorgeous in the 1970s, but your jaw will drop when you see what she looks like today. How would you like to be Valerie Bertinelli and see that online? I mean, what exactly are they trying to communicate to you and I? That somehow aging is weird. Well, newsflash, our bodies age and wear out, and that's what Paul is saying, and that's why he likens our physical bodies to a tent. But the third thing that we notice here in verse 1 is the contrasting terms that the Apostle Paul uses related to our physical body, our mortal body, this one that you and I have right now is likened unto a tent, as we've already said, what does he call our immortal body that is to come? It's a building. I like that. You see the difference? One is this tent that can get blown down by the weakest of winds and makes you pretty vulnerable to a passing bear rummaging through the campground or whatever. But this other thing, this is a building. This is a building made by God. Right, and he's talking now about permanence versus the temporal nature of the tent because we like thinking about a permanent body that isn't going to grow old that isn't going to have all kinds of infirmities and problems, not like these physical bodies that you and I have today, which are subject to all kinds of horrific issues, which is why Paul says in verse 2 look with me in your Bible, he says, “In this tent we groan longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” Notice that life today is characterized by groaning and we groan. I used to laugh at how much my dad groaned when I was a teenager, it's like, dad, chill buddy, you know? Hey, get out of a chair. And he'd be groaning, eh? Yeah. He'll get up from bed, he's groaning. My dad is 90 years old. He's got groaning down, now, but he's got a, he's got a good excuse to groan, I suppose. When I, we went back home for his birthday, I said, dad, I said, you're going to be 90. He goes, yeah, I guess I'm old, huh? He got old and never noticed, but he's always been a groaner when it comes to just, ah, my hips and my knees. ---

And I always thought, Dad, and then I started getting older, and I started groaning just like him, and it's just really disturbing. But Sue will even say, what's wrong? Nothing, I'm just groaning. You know, it's just life. Paul says, not only do we groan, but all creation groans. Do you remember he said this in Romans? Let me remind you of this here on the screen from Romans chapter 8, verse 22. Do we have it up there? There it is. He says, Romans 8:22-23 (ESV)

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together (notice how he likens this groaning, as) in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, (living within us, he says we) groan inwardly as we wait (and some of us groan outwardly, as we wait) eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” You know what's interesting about Paul likening this groaning that the creation is going through to childbirth? Is that both childbirth and the groaning that we're dealing with bring out the same thing. They bring life. Just as the groanings of childbirth bring forth the life of a child, so also the groanings that we deal with, of life that's just hard. Life is hard, you guys. We're groaning in the midst of it, and sometimes we even give in to complaining a little bit, or even a lot a bit. But it's bringing forth life. Life is going to come out of it, and when it does, I think we're going to be just be, we're going to be so delighted. I remember a gal in our fellowship a number of years ago, I did their wedding and she was pregnant and eventually was, went in to have her baby here at the hospital here in town. And I decided to, I needed to go over there and just hang out in the waiting room, and I don't think she ever went through Lamaze, which teaches a woman how to breathe and stuff like that. She just screamed and I, man, I was in the waiting room and she was just screaming her brains out to have this baby to the point where it was getting uncomfortable to look at the people next to you like in the waiting room. It was like, it's like she was just like, ahhh, and then what was really funny was just after the baby came out, the waiting room was right across the hall, I heard her say, “that wasn't so bad!” It was like, really? It sounded like they were cutting your head off, lady, but anyway, out comes life, and we're just really impressed by that. Now I want to read verse 2 and now tack with it verse 3. Look with me in your Bible. He says,

What is that all about? Paul is using a euphemism here when he uses the word naked to describe not having a body. I just love to get the look on people's faces when I say that because they're like, really? Not having a body? We can't imagine what that's like. Bear with me here. I need you to just think with me here through a couple of things. When we die, when you die, your physical body is going to expire. But the essence of who you are does not die. The spirit and the soul live on. In fact, the spirit and the soul cannot die because they cannot age. You with me? The spirit and the soul don't age. The body ages. You know how we know the spirit and the soul don't age? Because we see 40 something aged guys doing stupid things that they shouldn't do that they thought they still could do, that they could do back in their 20s. But now they're in their 40s and they're trying to do those things and they pull every muscle in their body or something like that. Why? Because we don't get old in our mind, right? My spirit, my soul doesn't get old, my body gets old. And it takes us by surprise. But here's the deal. What happens to you when you die? Your body ceases to function but what happens to you? Well, that is an important question to ask. Do you immediately go into a new resurrection body after at the point of death? And the answer is no, you don't and in fact, you won't get your new resurrection body until Jesus returns for His Church, which is an event we call the rapture. And that means there is a period of time between when we die, if we die before the Lord comes that is, there will be a period of time between when we vacate these physical bodies and when we take entrance of our new spiritual bodies. Let me explain, first of all, how Paul describes the rapture. It's in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, beginning at verse 15. Goes like this,

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, (and Paul is speaking as if he would still be living when the Lord came back. We who are alive) who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ, (meaning those who have died previously in Christ, believing in Jesus) will rise first. Then, we who are alive, (in other words still living when Christ returns) who are left, will be caught up together. (And, by the way, caught up is where we get the word rapture. We will be) caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. (And the Bible says) so we will always be with the Lord. Alright, now, so this passage describes the rapture, when we will be raised, and it is that point that we will receive our immortal resurrection bodies. The Bible says elsewhere that we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye that's referring to people who are living on the earth at that time in Christ, when Jesus returns, they will not suffer death. Lucky ducks. We don't know exactly when the Lord is going to return, but if the Lord returns very soon, it might even be us who do not experience physical death but are simply transformed in the twinkling of an eye, meaning that we immediately go from this old corruptible mortal body and suddenly and immediately take residence in our new incorruptible, immortal body. But here's the question that we have to ask. What happens to people, and where are those people who have died in Christ and there's been a lot of years of people dying by faith in Christ. Where are they now and in what condition are they? Well, some people believe that they're in a position or a posture of slumber, and they take it based on that passage in first Thessalonians. They take it literally when Paul says that that they have “fallen asleep,” and the Bible does use that again as a euphemism for death. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ. That's not a doctrine, you guys. That's just a euphemism. He's not saying that people literally slumber. Once again, your soul and your spirit can't sleep. That's why you dream when you go to sleep, right? You ever notice that? The movie keeps playing, even after you fall asleep and you have the weirdest dreams. The soul and the spirit don't slumber. They immediately go into the presence of the Lord. The body dies and takes a posture that very much appears like sleeping, which is why the Bible makes reference to it as sleeping. It's not true slumber, it's death, but it appears as slumber, and that individual goes into the presence of the Lord. The very essence of who you are immediately goes into the presence of the Lord. But here's the point. You're there, but you're naked. Now, it's not literal naked, right? Again, Paul's using that as a euphemism to describe the individual who has laid aside their mortal body, and has died, obviously, but has not yet taken up their immortal body. Paul refers to that in this chapter as either naked or being unclothed. Okay? Now, you're going to see what he has to say about that as we go on here. But he says here in verse 4, if you look with me again in your Bible, “For while we are still in this tent, (meaning in the physical mortal body that we have) we groan, being burdened, (we're burdened with the issues and challenges of life. But he says) —not that we would be unclothed, (Meaning, not wishing to be without a body, but look, he goes on to say) but that we would be further clothed, (meaning that we would have our new bodies) so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” So, he's saying here we're living in these bodies that we have right now, and they're vulnerable, and they're constantly getting sick, and hurt, and they're prone to disease, and decomposition, and we groan, and we long to be liberated from these mortal bodies that are breaking down. Not to the point of being unclothed he says. We really don't wish to be…No, what we want is to be further clothed with our new bodies, our new resurrection bodies that the Lord is going to give us. That's our desire. That's our goal. That's what we're aiming for, right? So, that's what we want. And then I love how he says at the end of verse four, this is, the reason we want this is “so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” I love that phrase, don't you? It just gives you that sense of just all that is mortal, all that is corruptible, all that is weak, and subject to decay and breakdown is just going to be gobbled up, just gulped up by life, by eternal life.

It's just such a neat picture, and then he says in verse 5, look with me there. “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God.” (Okay? It's God who prepared you and I to receive this new body, who has given us then His Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit) “as a guarantee,” Or literally a down payment. God has promised you and I a new life. In conjunction with that, as a down payment or a guarantee, He's given us His Holy Spirit, right? So, what is our conclusion? Verse 6. He says,

This is a fascinating couple of verses. Do you realize that as I'm talking to you right now, where you're sitting right now, because here you, you're just like me. You're living in this mortal, corruptible, physical body that we have that is prone to break down and everything else. Paul describes this as being away from the Lord. Now we can be pretty close to God in this life, through His Holy Spirit living within us, enlightening us, filling us, and so forth. And we're so thankful that He's given us His Holy Spirit, right? Oh, man, thank you, Jesus. But even so, even so, compared to what we're going to have when we get our new physical body, this is described as away from the Lord. You with me? Wow! As long as we're in this body, we're away from the Lord. That's what he's saying here, and he says, that's why we walk by faith, not by sight. We're not seeing the things that God has promised us yet. Only by faith do we see them. I see that my new body is coming by faith. I haven't seen my new body yet. I'm looking forward to it. You know what I mean? I'm hoping it's going to be fairly impressive. Not that I'm probably going to care. I mean, at the time, because, I'm not going to have that vanity. So, I guess I'll just be vain now, right, about the coming of this body, but, it's something to look forward to. But I can't see it, except by faith, and I believe that He has, He's promised this thing. He says, “while we're in this body, we are away from the Lord.” Your Bible may say, “absent from the Lord.” And this was a condition that the Apostle Paul was only willing to put up with, this being in the body, because he knew that being in the body was necessary for ministering to other people. You with me? Do you hear that? That's really important. Paul literally put up with being in the body because he's like, well, I got to just, I'm dealing with this body here, and I'm just putting up with it because, I mean, I'd rather not be in this body frankly, but I'm just doing it because you guys need me to do it, and as long as God has me here on this earth, I'm here to serve the Lord. That's why He has me in this body. Isn't that amazing? I mean, it's so different from what we hear today in our culture. We feel like, it's my body. I'm going to do with it as I want, and this body is here to serve me. Paul didn't think that way. He didn't think his body was here to serve him. He thought he was literally in the body at the time that he was in the body was to serve other people. To literally spend himself on behalf of other people. Let me show you how he actually said this. It's in Philippians chapter 1 beginning at verse 21. Check this out. He says,

For to me, to live, (in other words, to live in the body) is Christ (is to be a servant of Christ to be a representative of Christ to serve the Lord, but he says) to die (oh) that's gain.” (He says listen if I am to go on living in this body) this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? (I don't know!) I'm torn between the two (options) I desire, (here's my desire is) to depart (this body) and be with Christ, which is better by far. (Did you catch that? Being apart from the body is better by far) but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. It's necessary for you, it's not necessary for me. I am not hanging out in this shell of a body for me, I'm doing it for you. Do you understand how different that is as far as an attitude goes? I love how Paul says, he says, “I desire to depart which is better by far.” That statement that just reverberates in our hearts in a way that weirds us out a little bit because, see, we don't think that way. We don't think it's better to depart. At least I don't get that when I talk to Christians. I get communicated to me that it is better by far to stay here in this life, in this sinful existence, than to go and be with the Lord. It's really weird. I've done dozens of funerals over the years, and I can't help but pick up from some people what I'm doing, particularly the funeral of a believer, that somehow we lost. It's like, ah, we lost another one.

It's like, dude, if you could talk to that person who we're doing this funeral for, you know what they would say? Yippee! This is better by far! It's better! You guys get that? It's better. By the way, let that single word be the defining understanding that you have of heaven. There's a lot of Christians who are not looking forward to being with the Lord, and the reason is because they've either got some weird, wacky idea of what heaven's supposed to be, sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, which is ridiculous. Or they've just, or they just can't imagine what it is, and so because they feel like it's beyond their imagination, it's like nothing. Listen, let this single word that Paul uses here in Philippians be the governing understanding of what heaven is going to be like. Better. You like this life? I mean, there are some beautiful things about this life. You ever seen a glacier? You ever seen the beautiful forestation? You ever just seen the awesomeness of the ocean? Guess what heaven's going to be like? Better! It's going to be better than that. Take the best that the earth and this life can give you and what you're going to have then is going to be better. That's the way you look at life to come, okay? So, when somebody asks you, what's heaven going to be like? You say, oh, it's better. That's all you got to say. It's going to be better, right? You know what this life is like now? It's going to be a lot better. Paul says, better by far. And that's why Paul says what he does in verse 8. Look with me here in your Bible. He says, “Yes, we are of good courage, and he says we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” In other words, what Paul is saying here, even being naked or unclothed and being with the Lord, is preferable to remaining here and groaning in pain, in these physical, mortal, corruptible bodies. So it's better to go and be with the Lord even if we're going to be unclothed. That's not what we're going for. That's not our goal. That's not our desire because He's promised us so much more. But that's even better, and that brings us to the second conclusion that Paul gives in verse 9. “So, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim, (your Bible may say ambition) to please Him.” All right, I'm going to stop there for just a moment and just let that sink in because it's just too easy, you guys, to read verses in the Bible and not really take in what they're saying. So, can I read this again? “Whether we are at home or whether we are away, (meaning from our body) we make it our aim to please Him.” It is the goal of our lives, he's saying, to please, to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. And I read that and I was so convicted because I had to ask myself the question, is my aim always to please the Lord? And I had to honestly answer by saying, no, it's not. My aim is not always to please the Lord. Sometimes my aim is very self-directed and my aim in life sometimes is to please myself, and it's so easy for me to default to the ways of the flesh and to live to please me. But Paul says, this is our aim, and I want to just embrace that as a prayer. Lord, please make it my aim to please you and stop living for myself because you know what? That's a miserable existence, living life for self. And you know what? I'm not going to go on a lot about it here because we're going to talk more about it next week as we get into these actually we, not next week. Brent will be here next week, but the week after, we will talk more about this whole idea of, living more to please the Lord. But Paul concludes now here in verse 10, and he says, “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” And basically he's saying to you and I, he's reminding you and I that there is coming a day of judgment for all mankind and that includes even believers. However, you need to understand something. As a believer, and when I say believer, you know what I mean. As somebody who has put their faith and trust in what Jesus did on the cross, judgment takes on a completely different dynamic for you. You say, well, what do you mean by that? What I mean is this. You, as a believer, will not be judged for your sin. In fact, you cannot be judged for your sin. Why? It's already been judged. It's been judged in the person of Jesus, right? It's crazy how many Christians forget that. And I'll get to talking and I'll realize that I'm talking to somebody who's just under the weight of condemnation, they feel condemnation and I'll say to them, Okay, let me ask you a question, when you stand before God, how many of your sins is God going to judge you for? And they'll say, I don't know, that's my, I hope, I don't know, all of them I suppose. And you know what I'm looking at? I'm looking at somebody who doesn't understand what Jesus did for them on the cross, not fully. Listen people, if Jesus brings up one single solitary sin that you have committed when you stand before Him, then what He did on the cross wasn't enough.

Then what He did on the cross wasn't finished like He said it was. When He hung there on that cross and victoriously declared “it is finished! Paid, right? In full! You guys understand that. We hear that over and over again. Paid in full, paid in full, paid in full, and yet we think we still have more to pay. We think we still are going to pay more for our sins. How many of your sins are you going to, are you going to be confronted with at the judgment seat of God? If you're in Christ, the answer is none, right? None, because Jesus already paid. He became sin for you, hung on that cross, and cried out to His Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) You think he was just kidding? Jesus was truly forsaken, for you, so that you would never have to be forsaken. He experienced that forsakenness, so that you never would be. He experienced condemnation. Jesus was condemned for you. To the point now where Paul can say, let me put this reminder from Romans 8:1 up on the screen for you.

Man, do we got to get this through our heads! We just don't have it. We, you know why? Do you know why we have such a hard time laying hold of that verse? Because we've got our eyes on ourselves. And all I'm thinking about is what I've done. And oh, Pastor, if you only knew the rotten stuff I've done. And then they want to start telling me. I don't want to hear it. I know, I understand the depth of human depravity, okay? I don't need the details. Here's the point. You keep looking at your sin. Yeah, it's going to look overwhelming to you, and you're going to start thinking, There's no way God's going to let me into heaven. That's never what you were told to do. You're supposed to look to the Savior, because listen, the Savior is bigger than your sin. That's the point. So, it doesn't, whatever you have done, whatever you have done, you're forgiven in Christ. He died for you on the cross. He bore the full brunt of the wrath of God for you and for me. Let's ask the question again. How many sins is God going to bring up when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Not one single sin.

You say, well, then what's the judgment seat of Christ for someone like me? Rewards. Yeah, it's a different judgment altogether. It even has a different Greek word to describe it, and it's a judgment of rewards. Basically, what God is going to do, one day, is He's going to look at your life and compare it with all the things that He's given you in this life. All the gifts, all the abilities, all the resources, even that mouth that you have, and your hands and your feet and the things that you were given with which to serve Him. And He's going to simply say, What did you do for Me? And hopefully you're not going to be like that one servant that says, well, I took all that stuff and I dug a hole back here by the tree. Buried it there. You can go get it if you want. No, we want to stand before the Lord and say, oh yeah, yeah. I took all those things you gave me and here's what I did with them. Multiplied them. For You. For You. You know why? Because this life and this body isn't for me. It's not for me. It's for Him. For me, Paul says, to live is Christ. It's focused, fixated, directed, towards serving, loving, being with Jesus. That's my goal. That's my purpose. Right? To live for Him. My desire is that one day when I stand before Him, I will not be ashamed, and I might even possibly hear those words, well done. Don't assume you're going to hear those words. We want to hear those words. We live our lives to hear those words. Well done. Well done. You've been faithful. I gave you this. Look what you did with it. Right? That's what judgment is going to be for you and me. No judgment of condemnation. Now, the unfortunate reality is that for those who have rejected Christ and what He did for them on the cross, the judgment that Paul talks about here in verse 10 for them will be a judgment related to sin and it will be a judgment of condemnation, and the reason is because they've rejected what Christ did, and so since for them, He has not borne their sin, they will have to bear the punishment themselves