degradation of manipulation

Col. 3:8-9a (NLT)
But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. [9] Don't lie to each other…

Now Paul does round two for sins. These are the second group of five he speaks of, and then he throws in lying. Here we have anger and rage, first. Anger is the emotion of choice for those who don’t get their way. It is a classic response to not being in control. Rage, literally, “breathing hard,” is when anger goes nuts. Rage is just giving in to everything that is in you that wants to be God.

Malicious behavior, slander (literally, “blasphemy”), and dirty language (“shameful speech”). Again, all of this has to do with control. “When God is not in control of our lives, our lives are out of control.” (John Maxwell) Is there a difference between the first group of sexual sins and the second group of emotional sins? One is about giving in to our desire and drive for pleasure, and the other is giving in to our need to be in control.

We use anger, rage, malicious behavior, etc. as a tool to get the upper hand over someone else. If we can’t make our case in a principled, reasonable fashion, then we kick these sins into gear. Or maybe we never intended to reason. Emotional sin is a quick shortcut to actually seeking the truth.

When we allow personal desire for pleasure to rule our lives we are cursed to a life of immaturity. When we allow the second list of sins to shackle us, we are cursed to a life of manipulation. Both lists are front and center in our culture today.

Paul points this all out as a lie. We are simply lying to each other when we try to change reality into what we want. To be healthy, we need to be stripped of all of these allusions. Pursuit of pleasure, and doing what we “feel” like sexually, even if it goes against God’s plan, is just going to ruin us. If not now, some day. Using anger and rage and other emotional sin to try to control others is a dead end, as well.

But Paul introduces us to the real world. Tomorrow.