>>You don’t think that is a reference to an event at or after death?<<
At death, not after death. Remember that it is talking about the work that ministers do ON EARTH among the Church. Ministers, and yes we also, will be rewarded in heaven for witnessing and promoting the Kingdom of God. At the most, whether you believe that rewards will be at death or at the Judgment day, you could say that the determination will be made at that time. To say that any change or cleansing is or can be done after someones death is no where supported by Scripture.
[14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.]
My view is that the determination of ones reward will occur at the Judgment day because of the statement “for the day of the Lord shall declare”.
“The expression ‘the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ identified with His coming (1 Cor 1:7), is the period of blessing for the Church beginning with the rapture. This coming day is referred to as ‘the day of the Lord’ (1 Cor 5:5; 2 Cor 1:14), ‘the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil 1:6), and ‘the day of Christ’ (Phil 1:10; 2:16), ‘The day of Christ’ in all six references in the N.T. is described as relating to the reward and blessing of the Church at the rapture in contrast with the expression ‘the day of the Lord which is related to judgment upon unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, and blessing on millennial saints:
Yes, I agree with this. That is the Catholic teaching: that the particular judgment occurs at the moment of death. However, the process of burning a house, which St. Paul used as a metaphor for Purgatory suggests a process of purification of certain duration. Despite that, the Church does not really teach that the purgatorial trial occurs in the time or space and therefore the measure of time cannot be really attached to it, even though in the popular imagination the Purgatory was spoken of in terms of a stay with a given duration.
To say that any change or cleansing is or can be done after someones death is no where supported by Scripture
It is supported exactly by the verses in focus, since it is not possible to reveal of what sort the work is until it is completed. I agree however, and more improtantly, I am sure the Church agrees, that the process of purgation cannot be separated from the death that preceded it and can indeed be viewed as an integral part of dying.