Fashion statement, or fat support system?

A few years ago, suspenders enjoyed a brief moment in fashion’s spotlight.

For the man who wore a suit, a colorful pair of suspenders that paired well with his tie and French cuff shirt was the latest fashion trend. Enough so that men were taking off their suit coats to display their suspenders.

A few days ago I noted a TV political commentator still sports his colorful suspenders, which match appropriately with his tie.

I also noted a local man who wears suspenders every day.

Both of these men like suspenders, but there’s another reason why they wear them. They’re both overweight, enough so that a belt no longer can handle the challenge of the downward push made by their sizeable, protruding bellies on the waistline of their pants. It now takes a pair of suspenders to confidently keep their pants up.

Instead of addressing their growing physical issue of increasing obesity, these men choose to simply adopt a system that will allow them to keep loading up and bloating outward. Instead of doing what is healthy and good for them, they add a couple of straps in an effort to haul the load of fat they carry.

Like these two men, many people are in search of “spiritual suspenders” to haul their brokenness and sin. Instead of turning to Christ to cleanse them from all unrighteousness, they search for ways to carry around their sin. They don’t want to curb their appetite for sin any more than the other men want to curb their appetite for food. So they look for ways to carry it around confidently.

“For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth,” Philippians 3:18-19.

Are you building systems to support and sustain sin, or an appetite for holiness?

Scotty