“Ruint”
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” Matthew 5:13
Southerners have a knack for preserving distant days in quaint expressions. One of my personal favorites is “ruint” – as in, “She’s so ruint salt couldn’t save her.” (For those above the Mason-Dixon Line, “ruint” is an abbreviation of “ruined.”) We all instinctively understand the expression; her character is rotten far beyond salt’s ability to restore. Herein lies the beauty of salt laden in Jesus’ expression – salt prevents rot and decay. Salt prevents the dead from decay, the fallen from becoming foul. Could there be a better use for the godly man? In a society separated from Christ, the godly man preserves a certain level of civility. His faithful presence prevents a bad situation from becoming much worse.
The question now faces us: what of today? Where has the influence of the godly man gone? What has the godly man lost? On one hand, the godly man has lost his usefulness. In a word, the salt remains in the barrel. We stay within our own circles, speak our own language, and preserve our own status quo. All the while, we complain about the smell. Salt was not made to be gathered in cupboards and kitchen cabinets; salt was made to be scattered. To do otherwise means that we are “ruint.”
On the other hand, the godly man has lost his tastiness. Salt without taste is as useful as money torn in two. The godly man must remain whole; the godly man must remain holy. As Matthew Poole says, “If they have lost holiness of life, they are of no value, nay, they are worse than other men.” When the godly man looks like the world, thinks like the world, and speaks like the world, he is no longer salt. He is “ruint.”
For the godly man to be the salt of the earth, he must be a faithful presence among a dead and dying world – faithful to God and faithful to purpose. Salt may not be flashy, but salt is faithful. Each individual grain permeates in all and through all, keeping a dying world from becoming “ruint.”
