You Are Salt, So Stay Salty!
Mark 9:49-50 records 4 realities about the Christian life, using salt to help illustrate these truths. This statements can be used within the context of Mark 9-10.
Salt Purifies. "Everyone (of you believers) will be seasoned by fire." Cf. with Mark 10:35-45; Mark 13:1, and 14:27. See also 1 Peter 4:12-13, 2 Timothy 3:12 and 2 Corinthians 4:17. God seasons us with fiery trials in order to build us spiritually. This is better than the fire in Mark 9 for the punishment of the lost.
Salt Pleases. "Every sacrifice is seasoned with salt" to be pleasing to, and accepted by God. Leviticus 2:13, Mark 9:12, 31-32, 8:31 & 10:32-34. The OT sacrifices were to be salted with salt. Obeying this not only pleased God, but those priests who would then eat the meat. God seasons us so that we would be pleasing to Him as living sacrifices.
Salt Preserves. "Salt is good." Stay salty with truth and grace, instead of becoming a "diluted salt block" that is mixed or diluted with the world's ideas, errors, and wickedness. Cf. Mark 9:17-18, 22-24, 28-29; Mark 3:14-15, 6:7, 12-13; Matthew 5:13. God sends us to be a preservative in the polluted world.
Salt is Peace-Giving. "Have salt with you, and have peace with each other." Mark 9:33, Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:18, 14:19; 2 Corinthians 13:11; Galatians 5:22; 1 Thessalonians 5:13; James 3:18, 4:1-3. God can remove our inner guilt and sin so that we can be at peace with our fellow-believers. Don't be like the disciples who debated who was the best.
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