Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
Every man's work - each superstructure on the foundation.
The day - of the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:8; Hebrews 10:25). "The day" - i:e., the day of days, the long-expected day.
Declare it - old English for 'make it clear,' (1 Corinthians 4:5).
It shall be revealed by fire - it, i:e., "every man's work." 'He,' the Lord, whose day it is (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). Literally, 'is being revealed (the present implies the certainty and nearness of the event, Revelation 22:10; Revelation 22:20) in fire' (Malachi 3:2-3; Malachi 4:1). The fire (figurative here, as the gold, hay, etc.) is not purgatory (as Rome teaches, i:e., purificatory and punitive), but probatory; not restricted to those dying in 'venial sin'-the supposed intermediate class between those entering heaven at once, and those dying in mortal sin, who go to hell-but universal, testing the godly and ungodly alike (2 Corinthians 5:10: cf. Mark 9:49). This fire is not until the last day; the supposed fire of purgatory begins at death. The fire of Paul is to try the works, the fire of purgatory the persons, of men. Paul's fire causes "loss" to the sufferers; Rome's purgatory, great gain-namely, heaven at last to those purged by it, if only it were true. It was not this doctrine that gave rise to prayers for the dead, but the practice of praying for the dead (which crept in from the mistaken solicitude of survivors), that gave rise to practice of praying for the dead (which crept in from the mistaken solicitude of survivors), that gave rise to the doctrine.