Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Should Christians Use the Enneagram? | Questions You're Asking | 1 Corinthians 10.31

Episode Date: August 3, 2020

Can personality tests like the Enneagram help us know more about ourselves and get to know others better? Or do they mischaracterize us and try to contain us in ill-fitting boxes? Discover how https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/patrick-miller/ (Pastor Patrick Miller) views and uses personality tests as he continues our series on answering https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcast-series/questions-youre-asking/ (Questions You're Asking). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/thecrossingcomo (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks.  Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we are answering questions you're asking. A lot of these are coming from our Facebook page. So follow 10-minute Bible Talks on Facebook, vote on your favorite questions, or you can just give your own, and you might hear it right here on the podcast. Should Christians use the anagram? Okay, so full disclosure, I'm already guilty as charged.

I've done the Enneagram. I am a three, and I'm actually kind of a sucker for all personality tests. Myers-Briggs, I'm an I-N-T-J, Strengthsfinder, Competition, Disc, I'm a D. And so, look, if you're not into personality types, everything I just said probably sounded like I was speaking a foreign language. Eniogram, and all the other things that I mentioned are personality typing assessments. They divide people into different categories, different types. And they attempt to describe what motivates them, how they communicate, how they perceive reality, how they organize their life, what are their strengths and their weaknesses. Now, maybe you're hearing this and you're already thinking, I hate personality types. Well, I'm pretty sure you're not alone. Keith hates personality

types as well. That's why he didn't do this episode. But I'll never forget doing a personality type with someone who the whole time, they're just sitting there frowning, arms crossed. And And I finally asked, what's wrong? And he said to me, I hate personality types. They're dumb. It's a way of putting people in a box. And they never really describe me that well at all. I don't think they really describe anyone that well.

And isn't our identity supposed to be in Jesus, not in a bunch of numbers or letters? Well, if you're like that guy, let me just say this. That's okay. Personality typing isn't for everyone. You don't have to like it. You don't have to love it. like that one friend who's trying to make all of their friends take the personality types. And here's the deal.

Some of those critiques, I actually think that they're valuable. They're things that we need to hear. See, like so many different things out there, personality typing, it can be used in unhelpful and even destructive ways. But it can also be an amazing tool that helps us to not only know ourselves, but perhaps more importantly, understand people who are around us and understand how they are wired differently than we are. 1 Corinthians 1031 says this. So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the

glory of God. We can eat or drink to great harm, or we can eat and drink to God's glory. And that same principle applies to so many different things in life. So what I want to do today is take a balanced approach to the aneogram, and this will apply to virtually all personality typing systems. But what I want to do is look at three ways that personality typing can cause harm and also three ways that personality typing can help you. So let's go ahead and start with the risks. Three things. Thing number one, you can use personality types to box people in. That's a huge risk. Proverbs 1813 says, if one gives an answer before he hears, it's his folly and shame. We all have that temptation, right? Before someone even talks, we start thinking that we know what

they're going to say. We start thinking that we know how they think. And if you do personality typing, what can happen is you'll find out like me that my wife is a six on the enneagram. Now, six is tend to be people who are deeply loyal, but they can also be people who are fearful. They fear change. They can fear risks that might come their way. And it's easy for me to put my wife into the six box. Oh, well, you're just giving this response because you're afraid. And that's a real mistake because if I haven't stopped to hear her out, it's to my folly and shame. She might be afraid for a very legitimate reason. In fact, her being a sick, someone who has great long-term planning and can see what's

going to happen down the line, her fears might actually be rooted in reality. But my point is, one risk of using personality types is that we can end up boxing people in. We say, well, that's who you are, and that's how I'm going to think about you all the time without giving you a chance to explain yourself. Okay, a second risk, which is elevating your personality type over who you're called to be or who you are in Jesus. In Colossians 311, Paul says, here there is no Gentile or Jew circumcised or uncircised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Now, all of those different categories that Paul throws out, they're different identities, different ethnic identities mostly, but not entirely. We see slave and free in there. And Paul is saying that those identities, they are relativized by our identity in Christ. the most fundamental thing about you and about me as followers of Jesus is who we are in relation to him. The other things about us, they may be true, they may be valid, but that's not who we truly are. That's not who we most deeply are. Who we most deeply are are human beings who are in a loving, committed, transformative relationship with the king of the universe. Before you ever say your personality

type, you should always be thinking, but most fundamentally, I am a follower of King Jesus. Like I said earlier, I'm a three. That's people who can be very achievement oriented and can also be kind of fake. And it's easy for me to think of myself as a three, that kind of person, more fundamentally than a follower of Jesus, which actually maps into another problem with personality typing. We can use personality types to excuse our own misbehavior. So again, as a three, I might say, well, I'm a three. So there's a reason why I'm a workaholic. There's a reason why I was fake in that situation. Well, let's just pause for a second. Are those the kinds of behaviors that Jesus calls me to? Again, Galatian 615, Paul says this, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. So there's two identities

that are rooted in two different ethnicities, but two different identities. He says, they mean nothing. What counts is the new creation. He's saying your identities, whether it's a personality type or some other identity, again, those are secondary when compared to what's fundamental, that in Jesus you have been made new. So if your personality type leads you to sin in certain ways, like I said, I can be a workaholic. I've got a friend who's an eight, and eights tend to be competitive and argumentative people, which can be a great thing in certain circumstances, but they can also be people who use their words to harm people. It's not enough to say, well, look, I'm an eight, and so I can't help it. I just say hurtful words. I just come across as

demeaning or demanding. That's not an excuse. What matters is, isn't if you're an eight or a two or a three or a one or whatever the heck number you want to throw in there. That's not what counts. What counts is that you're a new creation. And as a new creation, as part of the new creation that Jesus has begun, you are called to use your words with wisdom, to love, to care, to equip, to heal the people who are around you. So three risks, using personality types to box people in, elevating that personality type over who you're called to be in Jesus.

and using your personality type to excuse your own misbehavior. Those are risks that can often come with using personality typing. Let's talk for a second about the positives, why I like personality types. And I'll just frame it as largely as possible. I think that they are great tools. They are great tools to help us know ourselves, know others, and follow Jesus more faithfully. So let me talk about three positives. Let's talk about the first positive.

personality types are great for self-assessment. I had a friend who was a one on the enneagram, and ones tend to be people who are very justice-oriented. They see the world kind of black and white, and they want to do the right thing. They want to make sure that the right thing is done. Now, one of the challenges for my friend who was a one is that friend could be a very rigid. Some people might even say a bit of a Pharisee, right? I've got the right way to do things, and people need to go along with me on it. But when they took the eneogues, and they started reading about ones and they realized that their rigidity could actually cause great harm. It was a great little mirror. It was like a mirror they put in front of themselves

and allowed them to self-assess. And that self-assessment has allowed that friend to repent of some of their Phariseeism and to grow into a more gracious person. Proverbs 182 says, A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only expresses his own opinion. We need things in our life that aren't just us expressing our opinion, saying what we think about ourselves and about the world. We need things that put us in the mirror. And personality types are often amazing at showing us our sins, showing us our weaknesses, showing us our shortcomings. And that's going to allow us to repent and transform. A second positive, personality typing can help you to understand people who think differently than you. Okay, I don't know if this is a news flash or anybody, but most people don't think the way you do.

They don't perceive the world the way you do. They don't communicate the way that you do. And that's not a problem. That's actually a beautiful thing. God has made this world with such a diversity of people and personalities and ways of being in the world. It's lovely. It's amazing. How cool is it that he made the world like that?

Personality typing allows you to understand other people to appreciate their strengths and to work with them better. So again, a great example. I have a friend who's a five. And this friend, because they're five, they're people who they love to research. They want to know the depths of things. And this can mean that for them, it's difficult to make a decision quickly because they want to know all the facts before they move forward on their decision making process. They want to make sure they've got all the data inside their head before they go forward. Now, I'm a very intuitive, quick decision maker, which is great sometimes, but it also leads me to do some stupid things.

But what that means is when I'm working with someone who's a five, I often can run roughshot over them because they're not making a decision and a decision just has to get made. And I miss out on the opportunity to learn from them because they thought really hard about it. And if I would slow down and let them go through their process, I might actually avoid making some bad decisions. They aren't just being slow for the sake of being slow. They're being slow for the sake of making a good choice. You see, understanding personality types has allowed me to work with people who, who are different than me and appreciate their unique strengths. Proverbs 18.5 says,

The purpose of a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Knowing personalities has allowed me to be someone who's able to draw out more of people, to understand people a little bit better, and that's at the heart of wisdom. Okay, a third positive, personality typing can help you toward greater effectiveness in God's kingdom.

Okay, I've got a friend who's a seven, and sevens tend to be people who love adventure, they love experiences, they're fun people to be around, and sometimes fun people don't want to be Christians because they can think, look, Christians are kind of a buzzkill. They're not a blast to be around. I love Christians who are sevens, one, because they tend to break the mold, but two, God can use their natural charm, their natural energy, their natural desire to create harmony and relationships. God can use that to bring people into his kingdom. So if you're taking a personality test and you find out that you're a seven, you are learning something about yourself that's going to make you more effective for God's kingdom than you would be if you didn't

know it. Paul says that the church is like a body made of many different parts, and each part has different gifts, and we might add in different personality traits, and it's not about having the right one or the wrong one or the good one or the bad one. Just like a body, you need all those different parts to function well together. If you take a personality test, it will always. often open up a doorway for you to see how you can be most effective for God's kingdom. You might not have thought of yourself as a hand, but all of a sudden you're realizing, wow, I'm a hand. And when I start living and acting and thinking like a hand, I like my life more, and I'm doing more for what God's doing in the world. Okay, so three positives, personality types are

great for self-assessment. They will show you your sin. A number two, personality types can help you to understand people who think and act differently than you do. And thirdly, personality, typing, it can help guide you toward greater effectiveness for God's kingdom. So we've looked at some of the pros and some of the cons. My encouragement for you would be go and if you're into personality types, use them wisely. If you've never done a personality type, you know, go online. Check out something like the an eneagram and don't use it in an irresponsible way, but use it as a mirror to help you see your sin, to help you see your weaknesses, to help you appreciate other people. If you're dating someone or maybe you're married, have them take a personality test, read it.

each other's personality type profiles and talk about what you're learning. I think you'll find that it's an amazing experience to do together. You can do it with friends. You can do it with kids. You can do it with parents. Try it out. And I bet you it's going to draw you closer together. And I think God's spirit might use it to do something exciting in your community. So thanks for listening. And again, I'd encourage you to go check something out. Or if you hate it, you probably stopped by now, so it doesn't matter. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great

way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.