What is the loss
that will be suffered by preachers who have done poor work? It is not the loss of salvation, since, according to this verse, the preacher himself will be saved. Rather, it is the loss of a reward. Without providing details, Scripture often promises that believers will be rewarded for their specific good works (e.g., Matthew 6:19–21; Matthew 25:23; Revelation 2:23; Revelation 22:12).
But on the day of judgment, the preacher who has not done his work well will receive only his life and nothing else. He will be like someone who has been saved from a house on fire.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.