diff --git a/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreter.java b/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreter.java
index b038dd6dbad..c875e8557b8 100644
--- a/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreter.java
+++ b/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreter.java
@@ -244,9 +244,12 @@ public SparkContext createSparkContext() {
         new SparkConf()
             .setMaster(getProperty("master"))
             .setAppName(getProperty("spark.app.name"))
-            .setJars(jars)
             .set("spark.repl.class.uri", classServerUri);
 
+    if (jars.length > 0) {
+      conf.setJars(jars);
+    }
+
     if (execUri != null) {
       conf.set("spark.executor.uri", execUri);
     }
@@ -259,17 +262,19 @@ public SparkContext createSparkContext() {
 
     for (Object k : intpProperty.keySet()) {
       String key = (String) k;
-      Object value = intpProperty.get(key);
-      logger.debug(String.format("SparkConf: key = [%s], value = [%s]", key, value));
-      conf.set(key, (String) value);
+      String val = toString(intpProperty.get(key));
+      if (!key.startsWith("spark.") || !val.trim().isEmpty()) {
+        logger.debug(String.format("SparkConf: key = [%s], value = [%s]", key, val));
+        conf.set(key, val);
+      }
     }
 
     SparkContext sparkContext = new SparkContext(conf);
     return sparkContext;
   }
 
-  public static boolean isEmptyString(Object val) {
-    return val instanceof String && ((String) val).trim().isEmpty();
+  static final String toString(Object o) {
+    return (o instanceof String) ? (String) o : "";
   }
 
   public static String getSystemDefault(
diff --git a/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreterTest.java b/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreterTest.java
index a5e0fe22760..87df793bb54 100644
--- a/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreterTest.java
+++ b/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/zeppelin/spark/SparkInterpreterTest.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import java.util.LinkedList;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
+import org.apache.spark.SparkConf;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.display.AngularObjectRegistry;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.display.GUI;
 import org.apache.zeppelin.interpreter.InterpreterContext;
@@ -138,4 +139,18 @@ public void testZContextDependencyLoading() {
     repl.interpret("z.load(\"org.apache.commons:commons-csv:1.1\")", context);
     assertEquals(InterpreterResult.Code.SUCCESS, repl.interpret("import org.apache.commons.csv.CSVFormat", context).code());
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void emptyConfigurationVariablesOnlyForNonSparkProperties() {
+    Properties intpProperty = repl.getProperty();
+    SparkConf sparkConf = repl.getSparkContext().getConf();
+    for (Object oKey : intpProperty.keySet()) {
+      String key = (String) oKey;
+      String value = (String) intpProperty.get(key);
+      repl.logger.debug(String.format("[%s]: [%s]", key, value));
+      if (key.startsWith("spark.") && value.isEmpty()) {
+        assertTrue(String.format("configuration starting from 'spark.' should not be empty. [%s]", key), !sparkConf.contains(key) || !sparkConf.get(key).isEmpty());
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }