In addition to the desire to be raptured, we need an ambition to please the Lord. Paul speaks of this in verse 9: “Wherefore also we are ambitious, whether at home or away from home, to be well-pleasing to Him.” After describing the longing to be clothed upon with the transfigured body in 5:1-8, Paul goes on to speak concerning an ambition to please the Lord by living to Him (5:9-15). In verse 9 ambitious means to be zealous with a strong aim, striving earnestly to be well-pleasing to the Lord. Whether “at home or away from home,” this was Paul’s ambition. The phrases “at home” and “away from home” mean to live to remain in the body, or to die to be with the Lord.
In verse 9 Paul seems to be saying, “I am ambitious to please the Lord. I am matured and ready to be raptured. There is nothing more for me to do. But while I am waiting, I have one thing in my heart—to please my Lord. I have no other ambition, aim, or goal. My only ambition is to please the Lord by living to Him.”
Why in 5:9 does Paul speak of living to the Lord and not living by Him, for Him, or with Him? To answer this question, it will be helpful to read Galatians 2:19: “For I through law have died to law that I might live to God.” Although the phrase “live to God” is difficult to define, it is rich in its implications. In Galatians 2:19 Paul says that he lives to God, not to the law. To live to the law means that we are under the law, directed by the law, governed by the law, and have the responsibility to fulfill the law. To live to God, or to the Lord, means that we are under the Lord’s direction and control and that we want to fulfill His requirements, satisfy His desires, and complete what He intends.
In 5:15 Paul says, “And He died on behalf of all, that those who live may no longer live to themselves, but to Him Who died for them and has been raised.” Worldly people live to themselves. But the love of Christ constrains us to live to Him and not to ourselves. To live to ourselves means that we are under our own control, direction, and governing and that we care for our own aims and goals. This is to live not only for ourselves; it is to live to ourselves. But the apostles, who were ripe and ready for rapture, had the single ambition of pleasing the Lord by living to Him. They were absolutely under the Lord. They were under His direction, control, and governing. Everything they did was to fulfill the Lord’s purpose and desire. As such persons, they did not live to the law, to themselves, or to anything other than the Lord.
Those who work for a particular company may live to that company in order to gain a promotion. In everything they do, they may wonder what the boss will think of them. Therefore, in their behavior, dress, and hairstyle, they live to their company. Even in selecting a new pair of shoes they live to their company. By so doing, they seek to please the boss so that they may be given a promotion. No doubt, by living to a company an employee will advance and achieve success. Likewise, a pastor of a certain congregation may live to that congregation. Everything he does, including the way he dresses, may be to that church. He realizes that if he does not live in every respect to those in that church, he may be dismissed from the position of pastor.
Paul did not live to himself or to anything other than his Master, Christ. He was always exercised to do what would please the Lord. He was very different from the rabbis who lived to the law and did everything with a view to the law. As one who was mature, ripe, and ready for the rapture, Paul’s only aim was to please his Master, the very One whose coming he was awaiting. Paul sought to please the Lord not by doing a work, but by living to Him in every aspect of his daily life. Likewise, we today should not seek to please ourselves, but seek to please the Lord by living to Him. All that we do must be to Him. This is the vital matter in this portion of 2 Corinthians 5.
I have pointed out that some employees live to their company. I would also illustrate the matter of living to Christ by going on to say that some wives seek to please their husbands by living to their husbands. Everything they say and do is to their husbands. Any wife who lives to her husband in this way will certainly please him. The way to please others is to live to them.
In 1934 I visited some believers in the south of China. Out of their love for me, they tried to make a certain kind of bread. Actually I preferred simply to have a bowl of rice, because the southern Chinese did not know how to prepare that kind of bread properly and adequately. Nevertheless, they constrained me to eat the bread they had prepared. In this matter, they did something for me, but what they did was not done to me. I use this as an illustration of the fact that many Christians who love the Lord do not live to the Lord. Instead, they live to themselves. They are different from Paul whose ambition was to please his Master not by doing things for Him, but by living to Him.
In verse 10 Paul says, “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for the things done through the body, according to what he has practiced, whether good or bad.” “For” explains the reason for the ambition mentioned in verse 9. The judgment seat is where Christ will judge His believers at His coming back, not concerning their eternal salvation, but concerning their dispensational reward (1 Cor. 4:4-5; 3:13-15). The word “recompensed” here is the technical word for receiving wages (Alford). While we are still at home in the body, we should do things through it to please the Lord so that we may be rewarded for them by the Lord at His coming.
In verse 11 Paul goes on to say, “Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord we persuade men, but we have been made manifest to God; yet, I hope that we have been made manifest also in your consciences.” Knowing the fear of the Lord means to be conscious of fearing the Lord. “Therefore” indicates that this is due to the judgment seat of Christ in verse 10. Furthermore, the fear of the Lord as mentioned here does not refer to the Lord’s being fearsome; it refers to our fearing the Lord. The apostles, conscious of fearing the Lord, persuaded men concerning their integrity, concerning what kind of persons they were, toward both God and men. But they did not need to persuade God, for what they were was already made manifest to God. Yet the apostles hoped that they would have been made manifest also in the believers’ consciences.
Verse 12 continues, “We are not again commending ourselves to you, but we are giving you an occasion to boast on our behalf, that you may have something for those who are boasting in outward appearance and not in heart.” The word “something” denotes something for facing those who are boasting. Literally, the Greek word appearance is face, the outward appearance of the Judaizers. The heart is where the sincerity and reality of virtues are.
Verse 13 says, “For whether we were beside ourselves, it was for God; whether we are sober-minded, it is for you.” To be beside ourselves for God is to be mad, as a fool, for God’s glory (Acts 26:24-25). The apostle’s ecstasy was not an excitement of folly, but was to God and with God for His glory. To be sober-minded here is to be self-controlled for the good of others in love.
In verse 14 Paul explains, “For the love of Christ constrains us, having judged this, that One died on behalf of all; therefore all died.” The love of Christ toward us was made manifest on the cross through His death for us (Gal. 2:20). This love constrains us. Literally, it presses on us from all sides, holding us to one end, forcibly limits, confines us to one object within certain bounds, shuts us up to one line and purpose, as in a narrow, walled road. (The same Greek word is used in Luke 4:38; 12:50; Acts 18:5; Phil. 1:23.) In such a way the apostles were constrained by the love of Christ to live to Him.
The phrase “having judged this” means having concluded this, probably at the time of conversion. Paul concluded that because One died on behalf of all, therefore all died. Christ’s loving death was the motivating factor of the apostles’ being constrained to live a loving life for Him. Since Christ died as our substitute, suffering the sentence of death on behalf of us all, in the eyes of God we all died. Hence, we do not need to die in the way it is reserved for men to die and face judgment (Heb. 9:27).
As we have pointed out, Christ died on behalf of all so that we may no longer live to ourselves but to Him. Christ’s death not only saves us from death so that we do not need to die, but it also causes us, through His resurrection, to live no longer to ourselves, but to Him.