1 Corinthians 3:15
1 Corinthians 3:1515If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.
The Watchtower's two-stage justification framework reads 3:15 as a final test of the believer's loyalty; those whose loyalty fails are not saved in the "even though only as through fire" sense of escaping. The verse is read alongside Revelation 20 and Matthew 25 as evidence that ongoing perseverance is the CONDITION of final salvation — loss of works is not just loss of reward but a warning of potential loss of standing.
3:15 is one of the clearest NT statements that rewards can be lost while salvation is secure. "He himself will be saved" is Paul's explicit guarantee of the worker's final state. The "as through fire" imagery is a man escaping a burning building with nothing but his life — he lost his material, but he himself got out. At the door: "Paul uses this verse to picture a Christian whose WORK is burned up but who is himself saved. If salvation were contingent on works surviving the fire, Paul's sentence would end at 'he will suffer loss.' It does not. Paul keeps writing — because rewards and salvation are not the same question. The Watchtower's framework collapses the two. Paul's framework separates them."