Christianity: Salt that keeps its strength
“Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Mark 9:50
Jesus uses the simple image of salt to speak to the heart of discipleship. In His world, salt preserved, purified, and gave flavour. Yet salt from the Dead Sea could become diluted—still white in appearance, but without taste. Jesus warns that this can happen spiritually: a disciple can keep the form of religion while losing the essence of Christlike character. To be salty is to carry a distinctiveness shaped by God—integrity in dishonesty, purity in a polluted culture, gentleness where anger dominates, and sacrificial love in a world of self-promotion. Salt works quietly but unmistakably; so do Christ-formed lives. Salt usually loses its flavour not through dramatic failure but through slow erosion: pride replacing humility, busyness replacing prayer, comparison replacing service, outward performance replacing inward devotion. The disciples themselves were arguing about greatness when Jesus spoke these words. Their rivalry revealed that their inner salt was weakening. So Jesus commands: “Have salt in yourselves.” Not “Do salty things,” but cultivate an inner life rooted in God—habits of prayer, tenderness of conscience, integrity of heart, and openness to the Spirit. When the soul is alive with God, the world tastes something different in us. Jesus concludes with: “Be at peace with one another.” True saltiness cannot coexist with jealousy, gossip, resentment, or bitterness. Peace is the outward sign of an inwardly transformed heart. A community without peace is a community where salt has faded. Yet grace can restore what we lose. When we return to Christ, repent of inner erosion, seek reconciliation, and walk again with the Spirit, saltiness is renewed. A salty Christian quietly carries the fragrance of Christ. A salty community reflects the kingdom of God. May the Lord keep our hearts sharp, pure, and filled with His peace.
