Anger, Hatred, And Malice

There is a sharp distinction between anger, hatred, and malice that many people overlook.  Not only do they become more ferocious in the listed order, but only the very last of the three is a moral problem in and of itself on the Christian worldview.  Confusing one of these for the other or mistaking all three for different sides of the same mental state is not unusual.  Since all three can be quite strong emotions and the first can give way to the others, it is not that there is no similarity at all.  The differences are great nonetheless.  Anger and hatred could only be irrational and unjust based upon the context and the way they are handled, whereas voluntarily pursuing malice is far more destructive to all involved.

Anger does not necessitate that someone hates another person, but it does require that they are at a minimum upset.  Irritation or a somewhat fierce ire are by necessity present in anger, but someone, intentionally or not, does not harbor a loathing for people themselves just because they are angry with them.  Anger is commonly assumed to be a negative emotion in the sense that it is supposedly overpowering or evil, but there is nothing about it that cannot be perfectly controlled on the level of beliefs and actions.  Whether one feels anger and to what extent it is experienced might not be a matter of choice, yet never once does anger by logical necessity result in deeds of cruelty or selfishness.  People are the ones who make irrational but avoidable choices and express anger rationally or irrationally.

Hatred goes beyond mere anger into an intense dislike that might or might not be accompanied by a desire for cruelty.  More harsh in its emotion and yet by no means inherently oppressive, hate is more than a simple irritation with something, but it does not mean someone has the longing to carry out acts of illicit harm against someone else.  One could burn with deep hatred without even slightly descending into any kind of irrationalistic belief or outward deed.  It is also possible to hate people for asinine reasons, such as because they are a man or woman (sexism) or because of the color of their skin (racism), rather than for their worldview and actions.  However, these are not the only forms of hatred, and that some of them are irrational or even immoral does not make all types of hatred idiotic or unjust.

Malice, as opposed to both anger and hatred, by default goes even beyond a strong dislike for something or someone; it is in a moral sense the desire to actively inflict unjust harm on a person.  Even if moral obligations did/do not exist, malice would then be only the desire to bring harm on others.  Hatred does not have to include or exist alongside malice of any kind, but malice almost inevitably emerges from hatred, just hatred of an irrationalistic or unjust kind.  Unwilling to not stray from reason and too intoxicated with their emotionalism, those with minds full of malice are the real inherent problem instead of people who only feel anger or hatred.  Someone full of anger or hatred might have the desire to not fall into malice, but someone with malice might not care at all about reason or morality.

Involuntary feelings are not sinful even if they can make a person wish they were free to commit sinful things.  Experiencing even malice does not mean that there is not another desire within oneself to never yield to it, as subjectively appealing as it might be.  For those who feel it, what a person believes about malice and whether they submit to it are the real issues.  Anger and hatred, though, can be distinctively positive moral motivators and need to be encouraged in some cases for everyone who is willing to handle them properly.  Someone who gives himself or herself over to malice is such a person that could deserve to be the recipient of anger and scorn, as they have betrayed reason though those who give themselves over to anger and hatred have not necessarily done this.