by Paul David Tripp
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
2 Corinthians 5:14–15

Once again the apostle Paul actually argued that the DNA of sin is selfishness. You don’t have to look very far to see this. Have you ever seen a young child, who can’t even speak yet, stiffen up in anger? You’ve fed this child, you’ve changed his diapers, you’ve bathed him, you’ve sung him every song and read him every story, but just you try to put him to bed and leave the room. You hear a scream behind you. He has pushed himself up, body stiffening, brow furrowed. Guess what he’s saying? “Oh no you don’t! You will not leave! I am the lord!”
You might laugh at that notion, but this is only evidence of the selfishness of sin that lies in each one of us from conception. And there is untold human relational carnage that comes from this—the deepest of angers, the deepest of hurts, the deepest of divisions.
Sin is fundamentally antisocial. At creation, mankind was hardwired to live both an upward and an outward life—upward in submissive worship of God, outward in self-sacrificial love of neighbor. But sin turns us in on ourselves. Sin is a sadly dysfunctional, inward way of life.
Now, if the DNA of sin is selfishness, and if that means sin is fundamentally antisocial, it means we end up dehumanizing the people in our lives. No longer are they objects of affection. They get reduced to vehicles or obstacles. They’re vehicles helping us get what we want—“I love you; I need you; but if you stand in the way of what I want, I’m spontaneously angry and I want to do you emotional harm.”
If you don’t think that applies to you, let me ask you this question: How much of your anger in relationships over the past month had anything whatsoever to do with the kingdom of God? Own it. Own it: we’re angry because someone’s in the way of what we want.

Thought to Remember for Today

None of us is excused from having to own that we are angry and that we frustrate relationships because we don’t get what we want. The only truth that will free us from our incessant self-centeredness is the truth that Jesus died for these very sins. Today, as you consider the patterns of selfishness that mark your relationships, ask the Spirit to remind you of the great truths of the gospel that are also true about you: you are loved and forgiven.

Fitzpatrick, E. (2016). Grace untamed: a 60-day devotional. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.