Mark 9:49-50 – Refined to be effective

Jesus had called for holy living in verses 43-48. He urged His disciples, as well as us, to live a watchful life. Hence, we must be careful in what we do, where we go and what we see. We need to deal harshly with the luring temptation of life. To be true followers of the Lord and pleasing to Him, we must constantly deny the strong invitation to gratify the desires of the flesh.

On top of dealing with areas of temptation in life, Jesus said “Everyone must be salted with fire.” What did He mean? The context suggests that as His followers, we need to subject ourselves to God’s refining process. If we are to be truly worth our salt and be effective witnesses, we need to be refined. Like gold being purified and refined by fire, we must be willing to subject ourselves to His refining process. One way God hones us is to put us through the trials of life. Tough times in life either make or break us. For one who is determined to be an effective witness for God, trials and testing have an indescribable way of bringing the best out of him or her. Bear in mind that we become more effective witness of Christ when we allow the trials to shape our character. So count it all joy when we face the trails of life.   

From verse 50, we can tell that the Lord expects us to truly maintain our flavour as His disciples. The idea is borrowed from the experience of the days before the invention of refrigeration. In those days, salt was used to preserve food and prevent them from becoming rotten. And Christ told the disciples, and us as well, that as His followers we are salt. We are the preserving influence to a fast deteriorating world. If we don’t, how can the world be preserved? Here He is calling us to maintain a lifestyle that can influence others for Him. When we maintain our salt-like quality in Him, we will not become worthless. It also suggests that we need to guard this salt-like quality that will enable us to be at peace with other fellow believers. And we know that this salt-like quality can only be retained as we stay connected to Christ.  

Here’s something that Mary Maxwell in her hymn said:

Just a channel full of blessing, to the thirsty hearts around;

To tell out Thy full salvation, All Thy loving message sound.

Jesus, fill now with Thy Spirit, hearts that full surrender know;
That the streams of living water from our inner self may flow.