"To the weak I became weak, to the strong I became strong. I have become all things to all men so that by all means I might save some." (I Cor. 9:19-21)
1. Have you ever heard of the expression, "One man’s meat is another man’s poison?" What may be fuel for one person may turn out to be dangerous for someone else. Paul teaches us in this passage, "For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh." (Rom 8:5)
We need to learn to be more controlled by the Spirit. Actively guard against specific temptations that may prove harmful – based on your individual faulty tendencies. Let us examine certain behavioral patterns that should be avoided by the four different temperaments.
2. Choleric – (Paul, the apostle) If you are a person who likes to focus on specific tasks and take charge of situations you might be especially careful to avoid some of the following fleshly tendencies:
A. You often want to win so much that you are willing to step on others to get your way.
B. You are in such a hurry to get things done that you may disregard how others feel or think about things.
C. You are so sure that you are right that you do not tend to listen to other people.
D. You tend to expect others to enjoy competing with you and like pushing for what they want – just like you do.
E. You want others to do things your way so much that you tend to become dictatorial.
F. You tend to be quick to blame anything that goes wrong on the failure of others to cooperate.
G. You tend to share only those thoughts and feelings that help you get your own way.
H. You tend to fear that if you said what you really felt, others would know how to take advantage of you.
I. You struggle to win on issues regardless of what the facts are or what other people might think.
J. You like to direct others just for the pleasure of controlling people.
3. Sanguine – (Peter) If you enjoy lots social interaction with people you may tend to trust others too much and may want to avoid some of these tendencies:
A. You tend to want to maintain harmony with people so much that you might be willing to sacrifice principles.
B. Sometimes you are so concerned about people liking you that you are loyal only to your special friends.
C. You tend to expect that everyone is going to be as concerned as you are about how other people feel.
D. Occasionally you want to help others so much that you tend to push your help on them and get in their way.
E. Sometimes you can be so critical of people who are not as socially oriented as you are.
F. At times you tend to talk too much.
G. You tend to want to maintain harmony at the expense of facing difficult issues or facing the facts
4. Melancholy – (Moses) If you are very careful about not making any mistakes because you are over cautious you may struggle to be afraid of making important decisions to act you may fall into the following temptations:
A. You fear that if you say what you really feel, others might see you as illogical or emotional (Overly fearful or excessively angry).
B. You tend to turn away people because you are not sure that what you will say might not be correctly interpreted.
C. You are overly cautious so you have a hard time trusting others.
D. You tend to want to be so careful about being right that you may not pay as much attention to people’s feelings as you should.
E. You want to be so independent that you tend to cut yourself off from people who you could really use your help.
F. You tend to be too quick to blame anything that goes wrong on the fact that you were not cautious enough.
5. Phlegmatic – (Abraham) You tend to be so interested in being steady and secure that you tend to accomplish little because you are afraid of appearing unstable and fall into the following temptations:
A. You tend to live more by fear than by faith in taking risks.
B. You tend to be afraid that what you will say could hurt the security of your relationships and your employment status
C. You tend to be easily manipulated by others because they see you as too easy going and laid back.
D. You tend to keep many of your best thoughts to yourself so others are not able to benefit from your strengths and gifts.
E. You have a hard time participating in change because you would rather see others initiate change
F. You tend to not like conflict so you will do just about anything to avoid it.
God loves us the way He created us to be. However, He loves us too much to allow us to follow our fleshly temperamental tendencies. Learn to allow your faulty tendencies to remind you to let God’s grace take control.
Application: Trust the Lord to give you the sufficient strength, wisdom and discipline to help you overcome faulty tendencies. Use the strengths God gave you to serve but do not depend on your own fleshly power. Learn to minister to others out of your limitations and shortcomings.
Paul learned how to use his choleric personality to discern problems and devise strategies to correct them under the control of the Spirit. The Lord used Paul to plant and develop many churches in extremely unfavorable environments. Be like Paul, who learned to let the Spirit of God transform his negative drives into positive forces. God used Paul to present something new – a grace oriented faith – to the Gentiles. Without Paul’s submission to the Spirit he would not have succeeded in evangelism, disciple-making and writing his many epistles. Learn to gently correct others who need help.
As Paul wrote, "Brothers, if someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. (Gal. 6:1) Ask the Lord to help you teach each person according to their temperament to grow in all aspects into Christ. (Eph. 4:15)
