Believers, Sharing or Forfeiting Christ's Glorious Reign by W F Woodhouse and published by Classics.
“For we must all be made manifest before the Bema (the judgment seat) of Christ to receive the things done in (through, Gr.) the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). This is the believers’ judgment, of course. “For we must all stand before the Bema (the judgment seat) of God” (Rom. 14:7-10). This is a threat because of a believer's wrongdoing, “setting at naught his brother!” Hence, we have the general fact – “bad” – or a specific sin, “judging!”
This Bema has been said for a generation or longer, to be but for the adjudication of Rewards. The usage cited, out of the eleven times the word is employed, indicates otherwise - and for us, New Testament usage determines its meaning. For example, Pilate sat on the Bema - did he “reward” Christ, or condemn him? (Matt. 27:19; John 19:13). Herod sat upon a Bema, trying both criminals and good men (Acts 12:21). Gallio heard accusations against the Apostle Paul (Acts 18:12, 16, 17, used twice). Festus “sat on the Bema” which Paul said was also “Caesar’s Bema” (Acts 25:4-19, used twice).
This Bema (translated “judgment seat”) is to dispense not only happy rewards but also the opposite. The word itself means - a step, or foot-room; then a platform, or raised place; then it became the word for tribune or place where judgment was administered. It is used but twice in its ordinary, secular way (as in Acts 7:5), “not so much as to set his foot on”. Thus we have what the New Testament itself yields and settles' for us its meaning. By this we stand.
