The Due Anticipation of Judgment

2 Corinthians 5:5-10

10 • 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.

Because heaven is the place where rewards are to be received and loss suffered [1 Corinthians 3:15] we ought to live in the light of going there in the here and now, storing up the proverbial treasure in heaven. Jesus said:

[Matthew 6:19-21] "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

and the consideration of what reward will be received out of the body ought to govern our service for him while still in the body.

The flip side of all this is of course that those who put no trust in Christ, who have no hope in God, who do not know God's Spirit, are neither ready for heaven nor can hold out any real hope of going there. The contemplation of how awful their judgement in the intermediate state will be ought to spur them to seek mercy while it may be found to avoid the 'second death' of their resurrected body, which is too awful to contemplate.