Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Corinthians 3:15

"If any man`s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." — 1 Corinthians 3:15 (ASV)

If any man's work shall be burned. If it is not found to bear the test of the investigation of that day—just as a cottage of wood, hay, and stubble would not bear the application of fire. If his doctrines have not been true; if he has had mistaken views of piety; if he has nourished feelings which he thought were those of religion, and inculcated practices which, however well meant, are not such as the gospel produces; if he has fallen into error of opinion, feeling, or practice, however conscientious, he will still suffer loss.

He shall suffer loss.

1. He will not be elevated to as high a rank and to as high happiness as he otherwise would. What he supposed would be regarded as acceptable by the Judge, and rewarded accordingly, will be stripped away and shown to be unfounded and false; and, consequently, he will not obtain those elevated rewards which he anticipated. This, compared with what he expected, may be regarded as a loss.
2. He will be injuriously affected by this forever. It will be a detriment to him for all eternity. The effects will be felt throughout all his residence in heaven—not producing misery, but attending him with the consciousness that he might have been raised to superior bliss in the eternal abode. The phrase here literally means "he shall be mulcted." The word is a legal term and means that he will be fined; that is, he will suffer detriment.

But he himself shall be saved. The apostle has supposed all along that the true foundation was laid (1 Corinthians 3:11), and if that is laid, and the building is constructed upon it, the person who does it will be safe. There may be much error, many false views of religion, and much imperfection; still, the man who is building on the true foundation will be safe. His errors and imperfections will be removed, and he may occupy a lower place in heaven, but he will be safe.

Yet so as by fire, ὡς διὰ πυρός. This passage has greatly perplexed commentators, but probably without any good reason. The apostle does not say that Christians will be doomed to the fires of purgatory, nor that they will pass through fire, nor that they will be exposed to pains and punishment at all. Instead, he simply carries out the figure he began, and says that they will be saved as if the action of fire had been felt on the building of which he is speaking.

That is, just as fire would consume the wood, hay, and stubble, so on the great day everything that is erroneous and imperfect in Christians will be removed, and what is true and genuine will be preserved, as if it had passed through fire. Their whole character and opinions will be investigated; and what is good will be approved, and what is false and erroneous will be removed.

The idea is not that of a man whose house is burned over his head and who escapes through the flames, nor that of a man who is subjected to the pains and fires of purgatory. Instead, it is that of a man who had been spending his time and strength to little purpose; who had built, indeed, on the true foundation, but who had constructed so much on it that was unsound, erroneous, and false, that he himself would be saved with great difficulty and with the loss of much of that reward he had expected, as if the fire had passed over him and his works.

The simple idea, therefore, is that what is genuine and valuable in his doctrines and works will be rewarded, and the man will be saved; what is not sound and genuine will be removed, and he will suffer loss. Some of the Church Fathers, indeed, admitted that this passage taught that all people would be subjected to the action of fire in the great conflagration with which the world will close; that the wicked will be consumed, and that the righteous are to suffer, some more and some less, according to their character. On passages like this, the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory is based. But we may observe the following:

1. This passage does not necessarily or naturally give any such idea. The interpretation stated above is the natural interpretation, and one which the passage will not only bear but which it also demands.
2. If this passage were to give any support to the absurd and unscriptural idea that the souls of the righteous at the day of judgment are to be reunited with their bodies in order to be subjected to the action of intense heat—to be brought from the abodes of bliss and compelled to undergo the burning fires of the last conflagration—it would still give no support to the even more absurd and unscriptural opinion that those fires have been and are still burning, that all souls are to be subjected to them, and that they can be removed only by masses offered for the dead and by the prayers of the living. The idea of danger and peril is, indeed, in this text, but the idea of personal salvation is retained and conveyed.