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Hi Roy,
I just wanted to add something, I believe, Paul assumed. Unlike human's with flesh and bones and an immortal soul, we have free will to choose God's divine providence during our lives.
The angel's choice, unlike ours during our journey on earth, was once and irrevocable.
The Catechism tells us:
391 . . . The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God:
"The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing." (Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800.)
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. (cf. 2 Peter 2:4) This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be like God." (Genesis 3:5) The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of lies". (1 John 3:8; John 8:44)
393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable.
"There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."
(St. John Damascene, De Fide orth. 2,4: PG 94,877)
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Our choices and any merit we can gain for spreading the Gospel is fixed once we pass to our particular judgment.
I hope this helps,
Mike
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