“What Paul says ... is that each individual is the temple of the Holy Spirit”
No, he says that later in a different context. The context for the verses about fire are very plain and simple:
“There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done. 9 For we are partners working together for God, and you are God’s field.
You are also God’s building. 10 Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build. 11 For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid. 12 Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw. 13 And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality....”
There is nothing there about an individual, It is not Paul talking about Paul. “For we are partners working together for God, and you are God’s field. You are also God’s building.”
We - the ones doing the work.
You - the ones being worked on.
We is not the same as you. Heck, even Catholics ought to admit that Purgatory is a doctrine that does NOT rest on 1 Cor 3! But then, Catholics ought to also admit the obvious - the entire New Testament contradicts the idea of Purgatory. There is no way to reconcile the New Testament with Pope Paul VI:
“It is a divinely revealed truth that sins bring punishments inflicted by God’s sanctity and justice. These must be expiated either on this earth through the sorrows, miseries and calamities of this life and above all through death,[3] or else in the life beyond through fire and torments or “purifying” punishments...
...That punishment or the vestiges of sin may remain to be expiated or cleansed and that they in fact frequently do even after the remission of guilt[8] is clearly demonstrated by the doctrine on purgatory. In purgatory, in fact, the souls of those “who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but before satisfying with worthy fruits of penance for sins committed and for omissions”[9] are cleansed after death with purgatorial punishments. This is also clearly evidenced in the liturgical prayers with which the Christian community admitted to Holy Communion has addressed God since most ancient times: “that we, who are justly subjected to afflictions because of our sins, may be mercifully set free from them for the glory of thy name.”[10]
For all men who walk this earth daily commit at least venial sins;[11] thus all need the mercy of God to be set free from the penal consequences of sin...
...Good works, particularly those which human frailty finds difficult, were also offered to God for the salvation of sinners from the Church’s most ancient times...”
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/P6INDULG.HTM
One cannot reconcile two conflicting ideas. We are saved by grace through faith, and our sins are forgotten by God. OR we are only partially saved, and imperfectly purified, and need “[satisfaction] with worthy fruits of penance for sins committed and for omissions”.
We are saved by God’s gift, or by our works and suffering punishment. One or the other. They cannot be reconciled.
Praise God! “4 But God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, 5 that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved. 6 In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. 7 He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of his grace in the love he showed us in Christ Jesus. 8-9 For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. 10 God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.”
“For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it.”
I have asked more than once for a catholic to tell me after being born from above in this life (as the New testament shows openly is the case), what sin could you commit that would take God by surprise? Not once has there been an answer to the question, perhaps because to answer honestly would require casting aside the non-Christian notion in catholiciism that somehow we who are born from above by God have to complete that which only God can accomplish. ... And they presume to teach us ... require that we crumble as children before their arrogant blasphemies!
Verse 16 is in a different context that verses immediately preceding it? And preceded by "you are God' s building" in verse 9? And followed by yet another admonition not to "violate" the temple? I can't take that seriously.
We is not the same as you
Why, do you think, St. Paul repeat variations of "every man" a dozen times in this passage?
We are saved by grace through faith, and our sins are forgotten by God. OR we are only partially saved, and imperfectly purified
That is a false dichotomy that does not rise from the nature and purpose of Purgatory where, as 1 Cor. 3:15 says, man is saved. Not "partially saved", and not "imperfectly purified". The Christ work in him is complete and perfect, and he is pure as white snow.
"No" ? All of First Corinthians is one epistle y the Apostle to the Gentiles. The chapter divisions introduced later by a Catholic. Either your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit or it is not ? Do you believe your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit ? What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
First Corinthians, Catholic chapter six, Protestant verse nineteen,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James