Salitness

Mark 9:49-50 are extremely difficult verses. Because they follow the mention of hell and unquenchable fire, some have connected the meaning to the person in hell being preserved throughout their eternal torment. Other translations like the New Living Translation renders it tested with fire. I Cor.3:13 has this idea. The Aramaic Translation says, "Seasoned with fire." It seems to me that contextually the theme is one of stumbling. How does one who is made to stumble respond to this? Is stumbling a death sentence, causing a person to wallow around on the ground of his stumbling, and to be taken out of the race? I think not. Everything the word teaches us says that those who go through trials that perhaps are meant for evil, God can turn into our good. In Genesis 50:20 Joseph acknowledges that his brothers had been a stumblingblock for him and meant him real harm when they sold him into slavery all those years ago. But, God meant it for good, to save the people of Israel from famine. Just as Hamen meant to destroy the Jews in Esther's day, God used it as an opportunity to save them. When we are made to stumble by others who abuse, misuse, and torment us, we do not have to allow this treatment to result in our demise. We must fight to maintain our saltiness. In Matt. 5:13 Jesus says that those who lose their saltiness cannot be made salty again. How do you get the saltiness back in salt when it has lost it? How do you get the saltiness back in a person whose heart has turned bitter and tasteless because of suffering?

Having salt in ourselves makes it difficult for the world to take it away. When a trial comes I can own it, learn from it, embrace it, and use it as a platform to do good. In Romans 8:28 God promises to be at work in the life of a person in all things. He does it for our good to preserve our love for Him and to fulfill His purposes in our lives. We do not have to allow maltreatment at the hands of others to bring about defeat in us. We have salt within ourselves. We do not depend on life to keep us salty. Life can wash it off. Life can beat it out of us. Our every day experiences are not the source of saltiness in our lives. Our salt and light come from within, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the one who enlightens every man (John 1) and salts every man. This ability to remain salty in spite of life's problems also gives us the ability to be at peace with all men. My well-being is not dependent on others and what they do. And my ability to live at peace with all men as much as it depends on me (Rom.12) comes from within myself and the work God is doing in my heart. This is the true path to wholeness.