salted with fire

theseldomscene · Banned Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 7817

by: revjp...

In Mark 9:49-50, Jesus makes an incredible statement:

“Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

Everyone will be salted with fire! What did Jesus mean by this?

If you look at the context of this verse, Jesus has been speaking about hell and giving hyperbolic instructions on how to avoid it (see verses 42-48). But verse 50 is not talking about avoiding hell, and neither is verse 49. Here Jesus is building upon the imagery of fire but using it to teach a different truth. Every follower of his, he says, will be “salted with fire.”

Fire and salt have many similarities. Fire has a purifying effect, as does salt. Both cauterize and disinfect. And both refine. It’s for this reason that Jesus speaks of being “salted with fire,” an expression that bears similarity to the expression to be “baptized with fire” (Luke 3:16-17). The fire of persecution is one of the things that “salts” and refines the Christian.

James 1:2-4 AMP Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. (3) Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. (4) But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

1 Peter 1:6-7 AMP [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations, (7) So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.

Have Salt in Yourselves

After making his bold statement that “[e]veryone will be salted with fire,” Jesus goes on to say in Mark 9:50:

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”

This is no longer merely a description of the Christian as “the salt of the earth.” It is now also a command: “Have salt in yourselves.” The original Greek recorded in the New Testament can have one of two meanings:

~ Have salt in yourselves

~ Have salt among yourselves

Both are probably correct. There is no question, however, that the following statement – “and be at peace with each other” - is an explanation of what it means to “[h]ave salt in yourselves.” Through Christ, you have been given peace with God (Romans 5:1) and you are now to express that peace toward other Christians (Colossians 3:15). This relationship of peace with other Christians is part of what it means to be “the salt of the earth.”

In Colossians 4:6, Paul takes this to the next logical step. He says:

“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

When your life has been salted with fire and with the peace of God in the midst of that fire, your conversation will reflect this to those outside of Christ. This is what Paul means when he speaks of “your conversation [being] always full of grace, seasoned with salt.”

As explained in Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament:

“The salt of holiness must always flavor our speech…The Greeks called salt charitas - grace - because it gave flavor to things. Our speech must not be corrupt…[S]alt (God’s grace) holds back corruption.”

In summary, we see that salt is what makes you distinctive. You are salted through:

~ The refining fire of persecution

~ The experience of peace with God and with other Christians

~ The understanding and action of grace in your life

As the “salt of the earth,” you flavor a flavorless world, you preserve a corrupting society and you make people thirsty for the righteousness that is found in Christ.

atoz · Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:02 pm Post subject: Re: salted with fire