Is your life on fire? Mark 9-10

Mark 9:49-50 (NASBStr)

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

"For everyone will be salted with fire."   What does that mean?  Who is He talking to?  Who is Jesus referring to?  The answer to interpretation issues is typically found in the context.   Here, in Mark 9, Jesus was asked about some who were casting out demons, but were NOT followers of Jesus and the twelve.   Jesus tells the disciples that those who are not against Him are with Him and begins to teach them about their own sanctification issues.   He tells them to cut off a hand, or a foot if they hand and foot were causing you to sin.   He had just told them to pluck out an eye if the eye is leading you into sin.   On the heels of this discourse He begins with the preposition, "for" to start the next teaching.   He had told them that those who fail to purify themselves (in the context of the Gospel He would mean, "come to Christ") will end up in certain peril of fire and brimstone.   He appears to be talking to the disciples about all men and the context seems to indicate that our fruits must demonstrate the root of our faith.   As He finishes His teaching He adds the line that "everyone" is to be salted with fire.    In the OT we read that every sacrifice was to offered "with salt."   It was not to preserve the sacrifice, as the offering was to be consumed immediately by fire.   The addition of salt is a condiment of God.  It is the "curing" of the offering.  It was to make a sweet savor to The Lord and the salt added to that sanctification process to prepare the meat for offering.   Salt was the picture of further making the offering holy to The Lord.   Salt is the sanctification process.   Notice that John the Baptist told us that believers would be purified with fire of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11).   John's reference probably comes from Malachi 3:2-3 below:

"But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the Lord."

We are told in the above verses to have "salt" in ourselves. We are to be purified by the gospel and the process of sanctification.   The sanctification process, however, is not easy.   It might call for the loss of hands, feet and eye.   It will be done through fire.   Jesus doesn't say we will be salted with salt, but rather with fire.   Those who are not purified by the Gospel and the Holy Spirit's ministry will be salt that has "become unsalty."  Can it be salty again?  Men will have either the fire of purification or of destruction.   But, both fires will come.  To the believer it is the process of the mortification of sin in their lives ... best done in the fire of life.   Sanctification takes place for the purpose of curing our sacrifice.  In Romans 12:1-2 we are told to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and renew our mind for that to happen.   Purifying the sacrifice makes it worthy.   God does that through the salt of fire.