Charles Ellicott Commentary Mark 9:50

"Salt is good: but if the salt have lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another." — Mark 9:50 (ASV)

Salt is good.—See Note on Matthew 5:13. There, however, the primary reference of the words is to the visible community of believers, the Church of Christ, as preserving the world from corruption. Here the words speak primarily of the inward grace, of which salt is the symbol, and which alone makes the Church what it ought to be, as the salt of the earth.

Have salt in yourselves.—The words that follow, have peace in yourselves, seem to refer to the contention in Mark 9:33, with which this portion of our Lord’s teaching had begun. The purity from selfish aims, which was symbolised by salt, was the chief or only preservative of peace.