In the exploration of works, a significant focus has been placed on the contrast between divine actions and human tendencies. Our works often manifest as works of the flesh, driven by carnal motivations that lead us astray. These fleshly works stem from our human nature, which frequently succumbs to base desires and results in actions contrary to the holiness of God. Unlike His works, which are always rooted in righteousness, justice, and truth, our efforts are tainted by the flesh, lacking the purity and eternal purpose that characterize His deeds. This distinction underscores the challenge we face in aligning our actions with His will, as our fleshly inclinations pull us toward sin, destruction, and death.

Anger, wrath, malice, and their cousins are works of the flesh that Paul warns against in nearly all his epistles, and they need not be dramatic. Converted church members are not burning stables or slashing tires, yet anger shows up in many forms, degrees, and levels of visibility. Repaying evil for evil can be as small as answering one morsel of gossip with another, or saying something true about someone that is neither helpful nor loving, since godly love covers a multitude of sins. Hidden anger works through purposeful unfaithfulness in commitments, small bits of chaos in others' environments, intentional procrastination to keep others off balance, and deliberately poor work. It also appears in refusing to do good when it is within one's power, giving mixed messages, withholding needed information as punishment, secretly rejoicing at another's calamity, and pouting when a rival prospers. Such anger burns inside a person and impels him to carry out his plans regardless of the cost to others (Proverbs 26:24-26; 16:29-30). Whatever its guise, ungodly anger destroys both the one who harbors it and those around him, so it must be dealt with and removed (Proverbs 29:22). Because the heart is behind it, whether subtle or obvious, those who make a habit of anger and its kin will not fit in God's Family. Jesus' disciples instead love one another, seeking others' well-being even at personal sacrifice. That love is not rude, selfish, provoked, or evil-thinking, and it does not rejoice in iniquity (I Corinthians 13).

Hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, dissensions, envy, and murder are works of the flesh, and all are related to anger. Anger need not appear as rage or fury; depression is merely anger without enthusiasm, and it remains a problem even without visible intensity. Paul warns at the end of Galatians 5:21 that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, because God considers these traits the very opposite of eternal life in His Family. They stand in direct contrast to the fruit of the spirit. Unrighteous anger inhibits godly love, drains joy from life, opposes peace and longsuffering, erodes kindness, rarely aligns with biblical goodness, despises gentleness, and resists self-control. The fruit of the spirit cannot be found in a person while he practices ungodly anger. Anger itself is not always sinful, since God created it as an emotion and is rightly angry at times, always in proper proportion and motivated by love. Men, however, often mistake a self-centered temper for righteous indignation. Godly anger is directed at sin, not people, and the safest target is one's own sin. Anger that is wrongly aimed, held inside, nursed, or secretly enjoyed eats away at a person, steals his joy, limits his potential, and injures others. It can be hidden even from the one who harbors it while surfacing in subtle, indirect ways.