Tom Pittman's WebLog

2015 October 12 -- Personality & Biblical Values

When I first started putting together what  I called "The God of Truth" (follow the link to read current draft), I wanted to believe that all 16 personality types had equal weight before God. Maybe they do in the sense that before God "there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female," but equality of worth is not the same as equality of preference. Slaves and free are alike invited to live to the glory of God in whatever situation they find themselves, but if (as a slave) "you have the opportunity to gain your freedom," Paul said, "do it." Women, who tend mostly to be Feelers who crave affirmation, were disallowed from church leadership. So instead we get men who are Feelers and crave affirmation. The result is that our churches are "full of hypocrites" (see "Hopeless" a couple years ago) and the pastors are proud of it. One of them actually told me so (I guess I didn't blog it, I can't find it today). The point is, God favors Truth more than affirmation. We are told that "God cannot lie," but the Bible is full of God and the Prophets and Apostles (and even Jesus himself) disaffirming people. If you want God to love you, you must side with the Truth first. Jesus said so. God created all people "equal" but Thinkers are more equal than Feelers. The Feelers running the American churches don't want to believe it, but they don't read their Bibles very carefully. Truth is not as important to them as self-esteem.

Today I want to focus on a different MBTI attribute, the Judger/Perceiver distinction. Judgers tend to be control freaks. In any competition, they want to win (and make the other guy lose, which is contrary to the Second Great Commandment). They also don't like to apologize: "Don't apologize, it's a sign of weakness," is a line in several movies and novels. Perceivers are always adapting to new information, and apologizing for previous mistakes. One person actually told me I was "the sorriest person I know." I don't think the line was original with this person, I heard something like it in a movie. It's what Perceivers do. It's not a bad thing -- even if it's a sign of weakness. The Apostle Paul bragged about being "weak." Jesus and John and Peter all told people to "Repent" (do things differently). That's a Perceiver thing, not a Judger quality.

The important thing with Judgers is that they are in control. Top executive positions in organizations everywhere are filled by Judgers, because they want to be shot-callers. Perceivers are willing to let them, so the only competition for these top positions are other Judgers. Some of the Disciples were Judgers, and they were constantly bickering about who would land the top spot. Jesus told them in no uncertain terms -- several times -- that his Kingdom was not to be run that way. The leadership should be by people who served (like slaves, as he demonstrated in one very visual example). Maybe the Twelve understood and ran things that way, but the Reformation threw all that away. Now anybody with a dominative impulse and a little charisma can get himself the lead pastorate of a large church, with hundreds or thousands of people to control. Jesus would be appalled.

There will be Judgers in Heaven, but not as many as they think. There will be Feelers in Heaven, but not as many as they want to believe. Feeler-Judgers have an especially tough go of it. Virtually every senior pastor in the country is a Feeler-Judger, but I wouldn't want to be in their shoes on Judgment Day. There will be liars and thieves and sex perverts and murderers who get into Heaven ahead of them. Jesus said so. Not because the liars are still lying, but because they chose to "stop sinning." The homosexuals in Heaven will be the ones who chose to stop sinning. The control freaks in Heaven will be the ones who chose to stop sinning. It's called "repentance" and it's really hard, so hard you need God's help to pull it off. From what I can see, it won't be many of them. God isn't into forcing people, that's a Judger (or Calvinist) thing. God wants everybody to "come to repentance," but if He must force you, it's not repentance.
 

Links

"I Am Judge" (how a Judger might think about winning against a TP)
God of Truth (on MBTI)
Biblical Confirmation (2016 February 25 blog post)
Spiritual Blindness (2016 January 22 blog post)
How to Win (December 16 blog post)
Sum of All Fears (December 15 blog post)
On Bullying (November 21 blog post)
Cowardly Face-to-Face (November 2 blog post)
Winners and Losers (October 21 blog post)
Personality & Biblical Values (this blog post)
See also: Relationshipism (and related links)
Complete Blog Index
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