Sin as Self-Worship: Why Love, Not Control, Defines Holiness
by Dr. Peter A. Kerr
Sin is most clearly understood not as rule-breaking in isolation, but as disordered worship. At its core, sin is the elevation of the self into the place that belongs to God alone. It always has been.
From the beginning, sin presents itself as a rival vision of worship. The serpent’s temptation was not merely disobedience but usurpation: “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Scripture later portrays Satan’s own rebellion in similar terms—an inward turn toward self-exaltation rather than grateful reception (Isa 14:13–14; Ezek 28:17). When human beings sin, they echo this same motive. We do not simply desire forbidden things; we desire to be our own source, our own authority, our own security.
This self-worship commonly takes recognizable forms. Some seek control, believing safety lies in mastery over circumstances or people (Prov 3:5). Others seek material possessions, hoping accumulation will quiet fear (Matt 6:19–21). Still others seek praise and visibility as proof of worth (John 12:43). Though these paths differ, their center is the same. Each treats the self as god, demanding that the world serve it. Scripture consistently warns against all three because each is a counterfeit altar.
Not all wrongdoing, however, bears the same moral weight. Scripture carefully distinguishes between willful rebellion and sin committed in ignorance. Paul explains that “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). This does not mean ignorance renders wrongdoing harmless, but it does mean it is not counted as deliberate self-enthronement. Sin committed without knowledge is better understood as mistaken worship rather than conscious self-worship. The heart has not yet knowingly chosen itself over God. This distinction preserves God’s justice and explains why Scripture repeatedly ties accountability to light, knowledge, and received truth (Luke 12:47–48; John 9:41).
Once sin is chosen knowingly, it rarely remains static. Sin intensifies over time. It becomes normalized through repetition (Heb 3:13), and it escalates because the self is an exhausting god to serve. Each act of self-worship demands more control, more security, more validation. What once satisfied no longer does. Scripture describes this downward pull as slavery—not because God withdraws freedom, but because misplaced worship reshapes desire (John 8:34; Rom 6:16). The slope steepens not because God scripts decline, but because the worshiper must continually reinforce the illusion of sovereignty.
In the end, the self proves too small to bear the weight of divinity. We fail ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves. We cannot save ourselves (Ps 49:7–8). This is not punishment imposed from outside; it is collapse from within.
The law of God exposes this dynamic by describing what love actually looks like. It names concrete expressions of loving God and loving others (Deuteronomy 6:5; Lev 19:18; Matt 22:37–40). Yet Scripture is equally clear that external conformity alone is never worship. Worship requires the heart. Obedience without love is not communion; it is performance (Isa 29:13). Only loving God is worthy worship, because only God is worthy of being the source of life.
For this reason, Scripture defines sin most precisely as a willful transgression against a known command of God (1 John 3:4). Jesus and the apostles press the definition even further. Sin is not limited to outward acts. It includes inward consent, cultivated desire, and withheld goodness. To nurture lust, harbor malice, or refuse the good one knows to do are not accidents; they are choices (Matt 5:21–28; James 4:17).
Temptation itself is not sin, but yielding the mind to it is. Even mentally playing with temptation, thinking about how it can be enacted or would be enjoyed, moves mere temptation toward active sin. Scripture therefore calls believers to take thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), to watch the heart (Prov 4:23), and to choose faithfulness before action ever occurs.
Sin may also be described as misapplied love. God’s love was never given to be hoarded. It was meant to be received with gratitude and reflected outward (John 15:9–12). When love turns inward and is treated as personal possession, gratitude withers (Rom 1:21). The soul becomes curved in on itself. The mirror of the soul meant to reflect divine light overheats, distorts, and eventually darkens. What was designed for participation collapses into consumption.
Christ reveals true worship not by seizing life, but by receiving it with gratitude and passing it on in self-gift. In Him we see that divinity is not self-protective power but self-giving love (Philippians 2:6–8). He stands as the true image of God, not grasping, but pouring Himself out. In Christ, worship is restored not through control, but through trustful self-gift.
Repentance, then, is not primarily regret over failure, but the turning of worship back toward God. It is the reorientation of love—from self as source to God as giver. Scripture consistently frames repentance this way: a return, a re-alignment, a coming home (Acts 3:19; Luke 15:17–24).
Seen this way, sin is not merely moral failure. It is relational rupture. It is worship gone wrong. It is the tragedy of a creature made to reflect holy love attempting instead to horad it and to generate its own.
The gospel does not begin by demanding better self-management. It begins by re-ordering worship. “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only” (Matt 4:10). Only when God is loved as God—rather than used as a means to self-preservation—does sin lose its power. Holiness is not achieved by shrinking desire, but by redirecting it toward the only One who can bear it.Sin as Self-Worship: Why Love, Not Control, Defines Holiness
Sin is most clearly understood not as rule-breaking in isolation, but as disordered worship. At its core, sin is the elevation of the self into the place that belongs to God alone. It always has been.
From the beginning, sin presents itself as a rival vision of worship. The serpent’s temptation was not merely disobedience but usurpation: “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Scripture later portrays Satan’s own rebellion in similar terms—an inward turn toward self-exaltation rather than grateful reception (Isa 14:13–14; Ezek 28:17). When human beings sin, they echo this same motive. We do not simply desire forbidden things; we desire to be our own source, our own authority, our own security.
This self-worship commonly takes recognizable forms. Some seek control, believing safety lies in mastery over circumstances or people (Prov 3:5). Others seek material possessions, hoping accumulation will quiet fear (Matt 6:19–21). Still others seek praise and visibility as proof of worth (John 12:43). Though these paths differ, their center is the same. Each treats the self as god, demanding that the world serve it. Scripture consistently warns against all three because each is a counterfeit altar.
Not all wrongdoing, however, bears the same moral weight. Scripture carefully distinguishes between willful rebellion and sin committed in ignorance. Paul explains that “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). This does not mean ignorance renders wrongdoing harmless, but it does mean it is not counted as deliberate self-enthronement. Sin committed without knowledge is better understood as mistaken worship rather than conscious self-worship. The heart has not yet knowingly chosen itself over God. This distinction preserves God’s justice and explains why Scripture repeatedly ties accountability to light, knowledge, and received truth (Luke 12:47–48; John 9:41).
Once sin is chosen knowingly, it rarely remains static. Sin intensifies over time. It becomes normalized through repetition (Heb 3:13), and it escalates because the self is an exhausting god to serve. Each act of self-worship demands more control, more security, more validation. What once satisfied no longer does. Scripture describes this downward pull as slavery—not because God withdraws freedom, but because misplaced worship reshapes desire (John 8:34; Rom 6:16). The slope steepens not because God scripts decline, but because the worshiper must continually reinforce the illusion of sovereignty.
In the end, the self proves too small to bear the weight of divinity. We fail ourselves. We cannot heal ourselves. We cannot save ourselves (Ps 49:7–8). This is not punishment imposed from outside; it is collapse from within.
The law of God exposes this dynamic by describing what love actually looks like. It names concrete expressions of loving God and loving others (Deuteronomy 6:5; Lev 19:18; Matt 22:37–40). Yet Scripture is equally clear that external conformity alone is never worship. Worship requires the heart. Obedience without love is not communion; it is performance (Isa 29:13). Only loving God is worthy worship, because only God is worthy of being the source of life.
For this reason, Scripture defines sin most precisely as a willful transgression against a known command of God (1 John 3:4). Jesus and the apostles press the definition even further. Sin is not limited to outward acts. It includes inward consent, cultivated desire, and withheld goodness. To nurture lust, harbor malice, or refuse the good one knows to do are not accidents; they are choices (Matt 5:21–28; James 4:17).
Temptation itself is not sin, but yielding the mind to it is. Even mentally playing with temptation, thinking about how it can be enacted or would be enjoyed, moves mere temptation toward active sin. Scripture therefore calls believers to take thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), to watch the heart (Prov 4:23), and to choose faithfulness before action ever occurs.
Sin may also be described as misapplied love. God’s love was never given to be hoarded. It was meant to be received with gratitude and reflected outward (John 15:9–12). When love turns inward and is treated as personal possession, gratitude withers (Rom 1:21). The soul becomes curved in on itself. The mirror of the soul meant to reflect divine light overheats, distorts, and eventually darkens. What was designed for participation collapses into consumption.
Christ reveals true worship not by seizing life, but by receiving it with gratitude and passing it on in self-gift. In Him we see that divinity is not self-protective power but self-giving love (Philippians 2:6–8). He stands as the true image of God, not grasping, but pouring Himself out. In Christ, worship is restored not through control, but through trustful self-gift.
Repentance, then, is not primarily regret over failure, but the turning of worship back toward God. It is the reorientation of love—from self as source to God as giver. Scripture consistently frames repentance this way: a return, a re-alignment, a coming home (Acts 3:19; Luke 15:17–24).
Seen this way, sin is not merely moral failure. It is relational rupture. It is worship gone wrong. It is the tragedy of a creature made to reflect holy love attempting instead to horad it and to generate its own.
The gospel does not begin by demanding better self-management. It begins by re-ordering worship. “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only” (Matt 4:10). Only when God is loved as God—rather than used as a means to self-preservation—does sin lose its power. Holiness is not achieved by shrinking desire, but by redirecting it toward the only One who can bear it.
When Sin Becomes Sin
Scripture consistently treats full moral culpability as requiring a formed will, not merely instinctive desire. This matters because self-centered impulses appear very early in human life, while true sin does not.
A toddler can demand attention, resist sharing, or even behave as though the world exists to serve them. In that sense, the seeds of self-worship are present. Yet Scripture never treats such behavior as full sin. Why? Because sin, properly understood, requires more than desire—it requires intentional allegiance. It requires a will capable of knowing God’s command and choosing against it.
Biblically, sin is not merely wanting the self to be central; it is knowingly enthroning the self in defiance of God. Paul explains that “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Rom 5:13), and Jesus explicitly ties accountability to knowledge and understanding (Luke 12:47–48). Until a person can grasp moral obligation, divine authority, and the meaning of obedience, their actions—even selfish ones—lack the full character of rebellion.
This is why Scripture consistently links judgment to light received rather than capacity alone. The will must be sufficiently formed to recognize God as God and still choose otherwise. Only then does sin reach full bloom.
For this reason, the age of accountability has never been treated as a fixed biological threshold. It varies by person, culture, and formation. In Jewish tradition, moral responsibility was formally recognized at Bar Mitzvah for boys (traditionally age thirteen) and Bat Mitzvah for girls (traditionally age twelve), not because sin suddenly appeared at that moment, but because covenantal responsibility was now understood to be consciously assumed.
Formation, therefore, is not the cure for sin, but the condition that makes true worship—or true rebellion—possible. This insight preserves both God’s justice and God’s goodness. It allows us to take sin with full seriousness without attributing guilt where there has been no meaningful capacity for worshipful choice. Self-centered desire may be present early, but true sin requires a will capable of choosing who—or what—it will worship. In terms of LUSTER, sin is not merely curvature toward the self. It is the conscious decision to remain curved inward once the light has been seen.
This also gives insight into how we raise our children. The goal is not to restrict freedom or tie children down by laws, but to offer freedom and help guide the formation of the heart. Parents must resist a child’s willful self-worship and reward a child’s reflection of holy-love. Ultimately the most important thing to keep in mind is that the parent is only a steward not the owner of the child—the child is meant to be a prince or princess of Heaven, and so must be cherished but also lovingly chastised into the intended role.
All Scripture in NASB
Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Isaiah 14:13–14 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”
Ezekiel 28:17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.”
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.”
Matthew 6:19–21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
John 12:43 “for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.”
Romans 5:13 “for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”
Luke 12:47–48 “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accordance with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
John 9:41 “Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, “We see,” your sin remains.’”
Hebrews 3:13 “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.’”
Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”
Psalm 49:7–8 “No man can by any means redeem his brother Or give to God a ransom for him— For the redemption of his soul is costly, And he should cease trying forever—”
Deuteronomy 6:5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Leviticus 19:18 “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.”
Matthew 22:37–40 “And He said to him, ‘“YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.’”
Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,’”
1 John 3:4 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.”
Matthew 5:21–28 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. ... You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
James 4:17 “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”
Proverbs 4:23 “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.”
John 15:9–12 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Philippians 2:6–8 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
Luke 15:17–24 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
Matthew 4:10 “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go, Satan! For it is written, “YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.”’”