It is not unusual to hear a person say, when they are referring to someone they know, "You know he or she is a sanguine." or my son is a so Choleric!" I am not sure when we began to really hear a lot about the four temperaments. It must be nearly twenty years ago. Since then there have been many books written about the subject and it is not been uncommon to have classes and seminars on the temperaments given at Christian retreats and camp meetings.

In case your space ship just landed from Mars yesterday and you haven't heard about the four temperaments yet let me tell you something about them or if you have forgotten let me refresh your memory.

They say that everyone of us has a dominate trait of temperament and a secondary trait . The four temperaments are Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. It is taught that these temperaments have positive traits and negative traits.

Though we began to hear a lot about them during the last twenty years or so the idea of the four temperaments is not new. In fact the concept was around before Christ came to this earth.

The Greek, Empedocles had a theory that there were four elements. Each element had its own god or goddess. Later Hippocrates expanded the theory of four elements and taught that there were four corresponding body fluids or humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. He believed that health depended upon the proper balances of these humors in the body. He taught that illnesses were caused by an imbalance of the body fluids. He also taught that there was a relationship between the body fluids and the yearly seasons which caused seasonal variations of each fluid. Hippocrates believed that people had different proportions of the humors but that one humor was more or less dominant.

Hippocrates is generally credited with the humoral temperament theory of personality, since he connected the types with both mental and physical states. For instance, blood, being warm and moist, made the cheeks rosy and promoted a cheerful (Sanguine ) temperament. Phlegm, on the other hand, was considered cold and moist and brought about watery looking colorless skin and a bland or sluggish temperament. But Hippocrates gave his primary attention to the humors as they related to disease rather than to personality.

As time past others continued to use and build on Hippocrates original premises. Plato who had studied under Socrates, contended that madness resulted from morbid humors contacting a person's mortal soul. Plato taught that the qualities of the elements and the constitution of the humors related directly to behavior. Of course it would not be long before someone would come up with the idea that the condition of the body was influenced by atmospheric changes. Even the position of the planets were thought to alter the fluids for better or worse because it was believed there was direct relationship between the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the organism. And so then the astrological signs of the zodiac came into the picture. So after a time it all began to fit together and it went something like this:

In the middle ages the alchemist believed that man's body like all other material things, was composed of four elements, earth, air, fire and water. They believed each individual had his own particular mixture of these. They called it temperamentum. They believed that the temperamentum was determined at conception and birth by the influence of the constellations and planets. They taught that aptitudes, weaknesses and chances of success or failure of each human being sprang from his elemental composition.

Through the years other types of classification of people have been made. People are said to be Optimist/Pessimist, Introvert/Extrovert, Right Brain/ Left Brain, Loner/ Joiner, and Type A/ Type B. Carl Jung Divided people into four types: Sensation types, thinking types, feeling types, and intuitive types.

Even the new agers have classified everyone. There are four types. The Sensory mode, Clairvoyant mode, Transpsychic mode and Mythic mode. They teach that everyone fits into one of these categories.

There are even psycho graphics for shoppers. The outer directed, the inner directed, the need driven and the integrated. Others have us all classified as animal types. Lion, beaver otter, or golden retriever. Others type us as butterfly, elephant, frog and turtle.

For a while Japan was excited about classifying people by there blood types.

There are even those who type people according to brain chemicals. They attributed what we are according to the amount or mix of dopamine, serotonin and other brain chemicals.

Though some of us maybe fascinated by personality types and the four temperaments as Christians we must consider the serious implications of using these kinds of classifications. These kinds of classifications are highly subjective and can lead to confusion, contradiction, false assumptions and error.

It is possible that the apostle Paul was dealing with those who were preaching about these things when he wrote to the Colossians.

Colossians 2: 6-10, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power."

Colossians 3: 1-3, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

Individual differences of temperament and personality can make life interesting and challenging, but the Bible does not categorize people according to temperament or personality. The Scriptures speak of nations and genealogies. They do not classify temperament types. The Biblical classifications of people are always in terms of their relationship to God. Psalm 1 reveals that there are two types of people.

Psalm 1:1-5, " Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish

When a person gives their heart to Jesus something happens. They are fundamentally changed. Notice what is provided when a person comes to Christ. 2 Peter 1: 2-4, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

The Lord does not have Peter say, "Add virtues to your temperament strengths. Instead he says in verse 5, " And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity."

The gospel is not a new life built on the old but it is a new beginning. The text continues. In verse 8,"For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Friends, our salvation is by faith in Christ alone. Let's be honest about it. A focus on temperaments is not a focus on Jesus but tends to be a focus on me, myself and I. The Christian life is not suppose to be a study of human personality and temperaments but rather a process in which Christ and his character is the focus of our attention.

The Bible makes it easy to grasp when it says, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18 ( the glory of the Lord is his character. When Moses asks to see the glory of the Lord he shows him his character.)

I wonder what Paul would write to us if he had known to what extent some have carried what we call Christian Psychology. Would he have written something like he wrote to the Galatians? Galatians 1:6-9 " I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

The most dangerous thing that has happened in recent years is that human philosophies have been carried into the church. They survive because they have been mixed with mixed with references to Bible texts. In the days when Paul wrote to the Galatians the problem was the matter of circumcision which some were trying to add to the gospel. Today it is maybe even worse. Listen closely to much that is being preaching and taught and you will discover that it is little more than self help and self improvement. We have in many instances clothed the vain philosophies of this world in a thin skin of religious terminology and people are being deceived and are buying it thinking that they are getting the real thing.

Friend, we must not forget two things; one is that the meaning of the word psychology is the study of the soul and secondly that the Scripture is clear that only God can read the heart. This means only God can read the soul.

I believe that we must be cautious in invading things that have to do with the heart or could it be that we are treading where angels fear to tread. The heart is literally the heart of our problem and we must not forget that only the grace of God can know it and change it.

Salvation is by faith through grace. That means that we cannot change ourselves anymore than we can nourish ourselves or of ourselves maintain our life functions. All of these things are the result of a power outside ourselves and that power is the power of God.

In our time the philosophies of this world are being accepted as authority even by Christians. These philosophies are not based on the fact that we were originally created in the image of a holy God, rather the standards are based on the model of fallen man. The only model used is flawed to begin with and from it they have established what is normal or abnormal. Modern philosophies have gone so far as to try to divide that which is indivisible, that is the heart of man.

The reason that this has been done is because if matters that have to do with the heart can be broken into manageable pieces then we will be able to save ourselves or if not save ourselves at least we can rationalize our flaws and defects.

You remember that in the beginning I mentioned that the temperaments have been assigned positive traits and negative traits. I would like to ask you a question. At what point are what are called negative traits of temperament really flaws of character. At what point are what we have designated as traits of temperament really the components of character?

When I was in school I don't think I ever heard about the four temperaments but there was a lot of emphasis being given to character development. Now you hardly every hear the word. A person may say that the four temperaments are really descriptions of four kinds of Character. I don't think so. Let's take a minute and check that out. In the first place the Christian is called to love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind and their neighbor as themselves. I can't see what that has to do with personality types.

Listen to the words of Jesus that he spoke in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5: 3-16, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Listen to the Holy Spirit speak through Paul in Galatians 5.19-26, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another." Galatians 5:22-26

It is not hard to see that these concepts go far beyond the so called Sanguine who is described as enjoying, optimistic, and friendly or the Choleric who has strong will power, is practical, a leader and optimistic or the Melancholy who is sensitive, a perfectionist and analytical, or the Phlegmatic who is witty, dependable, practical and efficient.

When you think about it, a person who is a member of the mafia or who is in the illicit drug business may have many of the positive characteristics of the four temperaments. In fact the drug cartels are probably looking for people who have strong will powers, who are leaders, optimistic analytical, practical and efficient.

As I thought about it I could see that even the devil has a large number of the positive traits of the four temperaments. When I realized that it made me understand all the more that a focus on the temperaments is not what the Christian life should be. We should have been spending the last twenty years teaching the importance of developing a Christlike Character.

There can be no doubt that this generation has done a exhaustive study of self. As we have become accustom to doing an MRI of the body so now we have as it were become accustom to doing a kind of psychological MRI of the soul. I realize that the Roman philosopher said, "know thyself". But the point is that we are not to know ourselves in the light or I should say the darkness of Freud or Jung or any other of the old or the modern psychoanalysts. Rather we are to see ourselves in the light of the MRI that the scripture does on the human condition.

This generation has a flawed standard of right and wrong because it studies only itself. We have established what we call the normal from what the scripture teaches is abnormal. (Remember the Scripture tells us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God and that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.) Trying to decide what is normal without taking into account the word of God is like trying to establish what health is from studying the people who are in intensive care in the hospital.

To make matters worse, not only is our baseline for normality flawed but we have now used the results of our psychological studies to establish the standards for what is right and wrong. I have said it before and I will say it again. This is not the first generation to be selfish. That has been our human condition since the beginning of sin. But the absolutely unbelievable phenomena of this age is that we have accept selfishness now as the preferred standard of behavior.

We are being told that we must look out for ourselves first. That we must love ourselves even before we love God. We are told that we are not wrong in looking for a church that meets our needs. We used to look for churches that taught the truth but that isn't so important any more. Everything now is about self and while it is thought that if we look out for ourselves first things will be better, nothing could be further from the truth.

If you will be honest the more that we think about ourselves the more unstable and unpredictable we become emotionally. This is why a marriage in which the spouses think of themselves first will probably not endure to celebrate even its 20th anniversary. More likely ten years will be a long time.

At the risk of making you mad I would like to comment of the matter of what is now called "meeting our needs". There are churches now that are more concerned with meeting the needs of the people who attend that they are being true to what the Word of God has to say to the people who attend. I have been giving a lot of thought to this and have come to the conclusion we make a mistake when we measure everything by whether it is meeting our needs or not.

Now I realize that there are certain basic human needs. These are physical, emotional and spiritual, but I believe that there are legitimate needs and what I will call illegitimate needs. We need to be aware that the needs that we have now since sin came into the world are not necessarily legitimate and God given. We are by nature proud and selfish and people who are proud and selfish have "needs" that God does not approve of.

Let me illustrate it this way. You have heard of people who are addicted to drugs or people that are compulsive gamblers. A person who is addicted to drugs has needs that a person who is not addicted doesn't have and so does a compulsive gambler. The fixation on meeting needs has gone so far that a person can leave their spouse and it is now sufficient to simply say that the other person didn't meet their needs and everyone will understand.

Many churches are directing their whole focus now toward the concept of meeting needs. In many places God is no longer the focus of our worship rather we have decided that worship is about meeting the needs of the worshipers. This brings up another matter and that is can people who are selfish and who use themselves as the standard really worship God in the first place? It seems to me that it is not appropriate to design a worship service for people who are not converted for the simply reason that people who are not converted don't worship anyone but themselves.

A person who sets out to meet their needs will not find that their life is stabilized but just the opposite they will find themselves emotionally and spiritually being thrown from pillar to post. This is because as human beings we are subject to internal and external physical and emotional influences. This means that life literally has its ups and downs. If I try to fashion my life based on its ups and downs the result will ultimately be only frustration and disappointment both emotionally and spiritually.

There is a classic story in the Bible that illustrates the point. You may recall the experience of Elijah on Mt. Carmel. It was a day full of emotional stress. The priests of Baal danced all day trying to get fire to come down from heaven to burn up their sacrifice. At the end of the day when they had failed Elijah prayed and the fire not only burned up the sacrifice but it burned up the ground and even the stones of the altar. After that Elijah had the false prophets executed- there were four hundred and fifty of them.

Then he prayed that it would rain, when it began to rain he actually rain ahead of the kings chariot back to the city and then he heard that Jezebel was after him and the word says: " But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee." 1 Kings 19:4-7.

After all of the tremendous things that had happened Elijah was physically and emotionally exhausted, this even affected his spiritual outlook because he prayed that the Lord would take him. Fortunate for him the Lord did not meet his perceived need to die but knowing that his real need was food and rest the Lord meet Elijah's legitimate needs and ignored the need that was a result of the recent trying situation.

David must have caught on early to life's ups and downs. He learned that if he focused on himself he would simply sink in frustration and despair. So you will notice when you read the Psalms of David that they focus on the power and majesty of God. The center of David's emotional focus was God, not himself. His focus was to glorify God and not to gratify his particular needs of the moment.

I am not saying that David didn't have physical, emotional and spiritual needs but he was not, as we would say, hung up on himself.

I heard a sermon one time about prayer. The minister said that when we take our problems to the Lord we should not begin our prayers by talking about our problems. We should begin by praising God for his goodness, for his many blessings to us and for being with us in our lives. He pointed out that when we pray to God and talk about our needs first our problems will actually seem to get greater. He used the experience of Daniel. The King had made a decree that if anyone would worship any other than the king they were to be thrown into the den of lions. Note how Daniel prayed. Daniel 6:10," And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did afore time."

Daniel's life was not about himself. He was about to be condemned to die. Yet he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before God as he always did. In other words. Nothing changed.

I wish that we would understand that the Word of God is the original psychology book. I don't know why we would want to study from the perspective of Freud and Jung who were atheists and agnostics and even some of the more modern psychotherapists who felt that religion was weakness.

If we are going to make sense of who we are in our innermost being we must start at the beginning. We must begin in Genesis. You see. We will get nowhere unless we understand that we were originally created in the image of God and that we were given the potential to develop our characters to be like His. To study how we are after six thousand years of sin and then try to establish some kind of norm is not going to do anything to get us out of the trouble we are in and worse still will block the working of the plan of salvation in our lives.

A person whose emotional focus is based on themselves will simply go from confusion to chaos. By now you may be thinking that I am against psychology. No, I am not against the study of the soul but I am against a study of the soul that is not based on the whole Bible. I say the whole Bible because you can just about prove anything that you want to prove by looking for a text here or a text there.

I must be careful with what I am about to say next. I recognize that there are people who earn there livelihood counseling people. But I do have a great concern. I believe we ought to be very careful in jumping into what is call psychotherapy. I have said it before and I will say it again and that is I don't think we ought to be quick in giving to other people the keys to our souls. In my sermon entitled "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" I discuss the concern that I have that we know too much about each other. I know that it is the "in" thing to, as they say, let it all hang out and to tell all. But I don't feel in the long run we are doing ourselves a favor by opening our innermost being to people who fundamentally have the same weakness that we do. We loose self respect and respect for each other and nothing is sacred anymore.

I may be oversimplifying matters but generally we are suffering from what has happened to us and what is happening to us and the net effect is that we feel either guilty about what is happening or bitter and resentful or both. God can deal with both of these problems. I say this respectfully and carefully, but these days a lot of people are confessing what there parents did to them when they were children. What happened to a person twenty years ago happened twenty years ago. What may be the result is that they feel either guilty for what happened or bitter and resentful or both. These emotions, then serve to keep the experience alive.

Friend, we cannot make the past go away, but it scripture has promised us two things that effectively take care of anything that happened in the past and one is that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and if that is not enough, God is willing and able to give us the gift of forgiveness toward those who perpetuated wrongs against us. The gift of forgiveness allows us get on with our lives whether those who have hurt us are dead or alive sorry or not. Though the scars are permanent the gift of forgiveness takes away the pain.

A person sent me an email not long ago. They said they had some concerns about the directions that psychotherapy is taking and wanted to know if I would suggest a Christian counselor. Now I am sure that there are large numbers of well trained Christian counselors who are sincere in what they are doing and have a high sense of respect for both God and man. I believe that there are occasions in which one might need Christian counseling, yet I have the nagging feeling that although there are sometimes special needs, most of us need counsel more than we need counseling. God has ordained that we are to bear one anothers burdens and actually to help the weak but I don't think that we need to be quick to get into each others heads to do this.

Personally, I believe that from time to time if not all the time we need to have godly men and women to whom we can go to seek the counsel we may need at the time. I should make it clear that by godly men and godly women I mean that men who need counsel should go to godly men and women who need counsel should go to godly women. Some very sad things happen when men seek advice from women and women seek advice from men.

Another thing, when I go to someone for counsel, generally, I don't believe that it is necessary for me to go into all of the gruesome details of my life especially if to do so betrays the confidentiality of someone else. It is much easier to confess your spouses sins and mistakes than your own.

It is too bad that we can't solve problems that we have with each other using the guideline that the Word of God has given us. You may not believe this but there is no problem that you can get into in your life but the Bible has the principles to be used to get through it.

Did you notice that I said to get through it not get out of it. The promise is that there has no trial come to any of us but that God will not make a way of escape so that we will be able to bear it. Our problem in this Tylenol generation is that we have a short fuse. We have little patience. What we must have we must have now- credit cards have taught us that, so that if we can't solve life's problems in 30 minutes with commercials in between then we simply take our toys and go home. By the way, we talk about going through the time of trouble someday. How are we going to get through that when we can't seem to get through the time of trouble that we are having today? If there is no victory now what makes us sure that we will have victory then?

The Scripture doesn't describe the heart in terms of good qualities and bad qualities. Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it.

How thankful I am that our salvation is not built on the instability of man, our temperaments or on our history. Our salvation is built on Jesus Christ the rock who is from everlasting to everlasting. How thankful I am that Jesus does not hold our past against us. How thankful I am that he is no respecter of persons. How thankful that though in this life we will grow old with the passing of the years, that the time that we spend here developing our characters will be time well spent because we will then be taken to that place where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes and there will be no more death neither sorrow or crying.

Do we have personalities? You bet we do. How glad I am that the Lord has made us different. Yet the urgency of the hour demands that we not focus on personality but on character and not on our characters comparing ourselves among ourselves but on the character of Jesus Christ. As we do this with the Holy Spirit we have the promise that by beholding we will become changed.

This is no time to play up our own strengths and play down our own weaknesses but rather this is the time to repent of all that is us and commit ourselves completely to Jesus who is the author and the finisher of our faith and who has begun a good work in us. Not only has He begun a good work but He has promised that He will finish it.