Basing a decision on fear is always the wrong response. The same is true of anger. From what I have been able to observe, there is no master martial artist who will say being angry with your opponent gives any kind of an advantage. If anything, it will weaken you and put you at a disadvantage, whereas a calm, compassionate mind will also be a clear mind and aid in focusing on your objective. Fear and anger blind and twist a person's decisions into making all kinds of mistakes which result in the opposite of the intended goal. Greek tragedy is full of examples and warning about this, the most prominent one being the story of the father of "Oedipus Rex." Interestingly enough, fear and anger are also the two primary survival threat responses.
One cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ and base his or her decisions or behaviors on fear or anger. It is an issue of mechanics. The practice of the disciple of Jesus Christ centers around agape, that is, loving kindness and compassion for every single being with whom one might encounter. Agape is the measure by which decisions and behavior are based. Agape and fear cannot co-exist in the same space, because agape will always toss fear out. Agape submitted to will always bypass that survival response. A person not practicing agape or presenting with its behaviors is not a person following or imitating what Jesus Himself taught or modeled.
This is why the dividing lines are so clear between the person being a disciple and the person "fulfilling the desires of the flesh." This is also why it was understood that those who claimed to be a disciple were obligated to live the same way He did, and those who did not live as He taught were not considered Christians. Mistakes and regressions are one thing as long as they are recognized and turned away from when recognized. But continuing to live basing your behaviors and decisions on fear, anger, or the cravings of the body even when these things are pointed out or revealed to you are quite another. Turning back and continuing on the Path is always an option, but it is a choice which the person must make for themselves.
God only holds us responsible for the things we're aware of, and doesn't always reveal everything all at once because that would drive us insane and to despair. I am becoming more aware of how many of my decisions have been based on fear and not agape, and I confess, it is probably most of them. The same is true of the decisions I make based on my own bodily cravings, or anger. It does no good to dwell on them or to "whip myself" for them. All God asks is that I acknowledge them and turn away from them, disengaging from that survival threat response and engaging with the Spirit of Christ, and His agape. He asks that I let them go and move on just as He is perfectly willing to let them go and move on, and indeed already has.
Every "work of the flesh" which Paul ever writes about can be sourced back to these survival threat responses, especially fear and anger. If the source of our responses and behaviors is the Spirit of Christ, then agape itself will be the foundation of our decisions and behaviors, and what will be seen in them will be, as He wrote, Agape, joy, peace, endurance, kindness, courtesy, self-control and so forth. There is no need for rules to restrain these behaviors like there is to restrain the behaviors which are sourced in fear and anger.
Finally, and fundamentally, agape is more powerful than either fear or anger. This runs counter-intuitive to the way our brains operate, but it is true. It is the man who practices loving kindness and compassion who is always the most powerful in the room, even when in a crowd. It is the man whose behaviors and decisions are sourced in agape who is always completely in control, even when angry and fearful men are shouting around him. It is the man who does not trust in force but in agape who cannot be forced, no matter what fearful, angry force is applied to him. This has been proven historically again, and again, and again, and such great men fall only and if they themselves succumb to fear and anger. Then they are weakened enough for others to destroy. The man who is sourced in agape remains present and in control even long after those opposed to him might murder him. We still today feel the effects of many such people, and their memories and words are carried forward while those who shouted against them or murdered them are forgotten and swept away.
Fear and anger are easy. They are also the most self-destructive, and result in nothing the person might set out to do.
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