1 Corinthians 3:15

15 if it doesn't, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won't be torn out; you'll survive - but just barely.

1 Corinthians 3:15 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 3:15

If any man's work shall be burnt
If any minister's doctrine he has preached shall be destroyed and disappear, shall be disapproved of, and rejected by the churches, not being able, to bear the light and heat of the fire of God's word:

he shall suffer loss;
of all his labour and pains he has been at, in collecting together such trifling, useless, and inconsistent things; and of all that glory and popular applause he might expect from men, on account of them, and which was the snare that drew him into such a way of preaching:

but he himself shall be saved;
with an everlasting salvation; not by his ministerial labours, much less by his wood, hay, and stubble, which will be all burnt up; but through his being, notwithstanding all the imperfections of his ministry, upon the foundation Christ:

yet so as by fire;
with much difficulty, and will be scarcely saved; see ( 1 Peter 4:17 1 Peter 4:18 ) ( Zechariah 13:9 ) with great danger, loss, and shame; as a man that is burnt out of house and home, he escapes himself with his own life, but loses all about him: so the Syriac version reads it, (arwn Nmd Kya) , "as out of the fire": see ( Zechariah 3:2 ) ( Jude 1:23 ) . Or the sense is, that he shall be tried by the fire of the word, and convinced by the light of it of the errors, irregularities, and inconsistencies of his ministry; either in his time of life and health, or on a death bed; and shall have all his wood, hay, and stubble burnt up, for nothing of this kind shall he carry with him in his judgment to heaven; only the gold, silver, and precious stones; and will find that the latter doctrines, and not the former, will only support him in the views of death and eternity.

1 Corinthians 3:15 In-Context

13 Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you'll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won't get by with a thing.

14 If your work passes inspection, fine;

15 if it doesn't, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won't be torn out; you'll survive - but just barely.

16 You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you?

17 No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred - and you, remember, are the temple.