Monopoly money...

is only fun in the game of Monopoly.  Otherwise the currency has no value.  While the bank of Monopoly accepts the pink 50's for rent on the railroads, the local Costco is not going to take the funny money for super-sized packages of toilet paper.  My favorite card in Monopoly is the get out of jail free card because you can hold it until you reaaaaly need it.  Again though, the card only has value in the game.  Get caught speeding and no judge is going to take that card from you in place of the cold hard cash fine civic duty will require you pay. 

Want to play Monopoly?  Maybe on a rainy day, but not in real life as a Christian required to think and live according to Biblical principles.

Here's the connect.  In recent blog surfing of some favorite sites, I'm struck with the current rampancy of debates and controversy.  There are some real doozies out there right now.  Come one, come all and pick your side on Christian modesty and educational choice.  You'll find as many people for you as against you. 

Over at Carla's Reflections of the Times, she has great insight and perspective on the value of revisiting certain topics, but all supported by the necessity of abiding principles (1 Peter 3:15) to keep in mind whether an observer or participant to the fray.

However, in the reading of the various comments and sides and opinions, I'm more than a tad agitated by the oft used favorite defense so rendered in a somewhat petulant tone "do not judge."  I'm more than a tad agitated, in a washing machine manner, that this phrase has taken on Monopoly quality reminiscent of the "get out of jail free" card.  And the card is used liberally by anyone who dislikes the questioning of or disagreement with his/her views.

I'm agitated, in a stirred up way, that this phrase is being rendered apart from any proper Biblical context.  It's become the nannie-nannie-boo-boo defense.  If you disagree with me, then I'll just piously flash my "do not judge" badge.  Empathetic onlookers will sympathetically nod in agreement, someone will cite the story of the woman from John 8, and anyone attempting to apply Biblical principles of discernment will be summarily dismissed as unreasonably legalistic.  Period.

But Christians, I appeal to you to stand upon the stanchions of God's truth and exercise wisdom in your verbiage of these words.  To rip these three words from a solid Biblical context is as valueless as Rosie O'Donnell using them to justify her immorality.

I'm certain that everyone in some context at some point has been wrongly "judged" by another believer.  And I'm sure that the situation was hurtful, devastating, discouraging and all manner of unpleasant.  Personally my hand is raised in that same group.  However, lest we throw proverbial baby out with proverbial bathwater, whether you've been on the receiving or giving end of wrong "judgment," the solution is not to deny its exercise.  The solution is to study its context and apply it properly, humbly, diligently, consistently.

Romans 15:14 gives Paul's encouragement to believers that he is persuaded that these Roman Christians having been founded in solid Biblical doctrines of justification, propitiation, and sanctification are "full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to admonish one another."

Full of goodness, as defined by God in His Word.  Filled with all knowledge, as given by God in His Word.  Able to admonish one another, as directed by God in His Word.  If believers are not doing this for one another, do we really expect an unbelieving world to see truth?  Of course not.  Let's just all play Monopoly.