SALTED WITH FIRE

The Gospel of Mark 9 has some very difficult texts to deal with both in practice and interpretation, in particular verse 49.
“For everyone will be salted with fire and every sacrifice will be salted with salt.”
Jamison, Fausset and Brown Commentary has the best explanation in my opinion.

“A difficult verse, on which much has been written–some of it to little purpose. “Every one” probably means “Every follower of mine”, and the “fire” with which he “must be salted” probably means “a fiery trial” to season him. The reference to salting the sacrifice is of course to that maxim of the Levitical law, that every acceptable sacrifice must be sprinkled with salt, to express symbolically its soundness, sweetness, wholesomeness, acceptability. But as it had to be roasted first, we have here the further idea of a salting with fire. In this case, “every sacrifice,” in the next clause, will mean, “Every one who would be found an acceptable offering to God”; and thus the whole verse may perhaps be paraphrased as follows: “Every disciple of Mine shall have a fiery trial to undergo, and everyone who would be found an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to God, must have such a salting, like the Levitical sacrifices.”

“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.” Jesus