These aspects are, from a Christian point of view, the mind, the emotions, the will and the conscience. These are underpinned by the body and the spirit. Now comes a greater difficulty. For the Christian we are said to have an old nature and a new nature! The secular reader of personality will mostly only read the personality of the old nature!
I think there are two very important things we can derive from personality,
1, just how differently each person is wired and therefore why we wouldn't do what they do!
2, that the personality we treasure is actually what we are supposed to put off!
How differently we think!
A helper will intuitively know/ feel another's need. They do not need debate, consensus, facts and figures they know what a person needs and will sacrifice themselves to help. If fact they generally do not like debate and consensus! Nurses, doctors, teachers, Mother Teressa and so on have a tendency to be helpers.
Mediators on the other hand feel that the answer will come from understanding everyone else's point of view. Again, sacrificing their own needs, but this time what is needed isn't intuitively know, it is arrived at through debate and discussion! Teachers, politicians, committees and so on.
Clearly, these two ways of arriving at a conclusion are very different. It is easy to look at people and wonder why they do what they do when we would never do that. But people are wired so differently that they do not think the same or act the same.
Putting off the old
It seems to me that at the heart of personality lies a lie. Take the helper above, there is a lie that says, "My love makes the world go round", "It is me that is needed." This lie could have come from the misunderstanding that "Mummy and Daddy will love me if I'm helpful!"
On the other hand the mediator has the lie, "The answer lies in our collective knowledge!" and probably comes from the misunderstanding, "If I listen to everyone I should avoid punishment!"
Clearly these two are part of the fallen nature; the old nature, and we are told to put off the old nature. It is worth finding out what lies within the old nature so that we can distinguish it from the new. For example, helpers are fueled by the old nature, a fallen state perpetuated by a lie. However, to the outside world what better quality can there be than being a helper? Likewise the idea that we all sit around and discuss to find the answer is a very noble idea. It isn't helping and discussion that are "wrong" it is the fact that people who are operating within their personality are effectively slaves to their personality and Jesus has set us free. Not only is the helper free to help, but is now free not to help! He/ she is free to feed him/ herself as well, free to no longer be a victim subject to feelings of guilt.
Likewise the mediator is free to consider his/her own beliefs. The "drive" to find "the answer" through debate is not noble, although on the surface it is! The drive is pain avoidance! As Christians we are called to "be Holy," that means to come out and be separate. We are to find what we believe and stand for and then engage with the world. We will not find the answer through debate with the world! Debate with the world is in order to give them the answer!
Can our old natures be redeemed? The answer has to be "no!" Why? Because we are given a new one; the nature of Christ in the image of Christ's nature. If God were able to redeem our old nature then we would not need a new nature. The fact that God has given us a new nature shouts that our old nature is beyond redemption! Therefore whatever qualities we posses that we feel driven by are not the qualities we should be putting energy into. We should be putting energy into putting off these old habits and putting on the new ones. This is contrary to the idea of "self actualisation." This is the idea that we grow in our personalities until we are the best we can be. An analogy might be like having a car, we can polish the old car and get it tuned up so that everyone thinks it is wonderful, but we are supposed to be driving the new car!
Each personality type has a lie at it's root, and we need to live in the knowledge that that lie is corrected by ultimate and absolute truth:
1, The perfectionist believes that they know the right way, the truth is only God fully knows the right way, we do not posses all knowledge. The child perfectionist believes that mummy and daddy will love them if the get it right, the truth is God loves you anyway!
2, The helper believes that his/ her love makes the world go round, it is God's love that makes the world go round and if He needs your help He will let you know. The child helper believes that mummy and daddy will love them if they are helpful, again God loves them anyway.
3, The achiever believes that hard work will make them successful, God will make you successful. The child achiever believes that mummy and daddy will love them if they are successful, whereas God loves them anyway.
4, The artist believes that truth is found in the deepest of feelings, whereas truth is only found in God and at every level.
5, The observer believes that resources are limited and therefore has to hoard knowledge, the truth is that God is limitless.
6, The loyal skeptic believes that the world is a dangerous place and security can be found in authority. The truth is that security can only be found in God. No human authority is infallible.
7, The enthusiast believes that life is all about fun and avoids the truth that life is also about pain. We are to weep with those who weep as well as laugh with those who laugh.
8, The top dog sees life as unjust and that they are needed to defend the innocent. Again there is a nugget of truth in this but it is subjective. God is the defender of the innocent, there is justice, God will avenge every wrong doing. We are called to be obedient to His every word, that means fighting when He says and not fighting when He says.
9, The mediator believes that peace is the most important thing between people and will deny self to achieve peace. That sounds very ideal but the truth is that there can be no peace other than between man and God. God calls us all to make our peace with Him through Jesus, that requires us to acknowledge our own needs. If we bring the whole world to peace and have not made our own peace with God then we have achieved nothing.
There are very good qualities to our old natures but we are told to put of our old nature. That is a tall order and something beyond our usual understanding. Jesus did not function in a way that He was compelled to follow a pattern of behaviour regardless of what His Father was telling Him to do. We have His nature and have the ability to grow in that freedom. To function in step with the minute by minute will of God.
We can all hear a helper saying how we should help those in need and feel guilty because we aren't. But the helper is no more helping than we are! They are not helping they are compulsively rescuing! We can read a book by a mediator on how we should consider others before ourselves, but the mediator is not a good role model of what Jesus called us to. Jesus refueled Himself , He attended to His own needs and the needs of others. He was able to reach conclusions for action and didn't need to endlessly debate the possible outcome of any and every possible action!
The challenge for us is not to be like the helper or the mediator but to be like Jesus. Free from being slaves to our behavioural habits.
