For decades, big corporations have used personality tests to evaluate employee candidates during their hiring process. These tests are suggested to offer several benefits, such as:

• Better understanding others.
• Identifying our likes and dislikes.
• Knowing which situations are ideal for us.
• Recognizing our strengths and weaknesses.

However, in the March–April 2017 issue of the Harvard Business Review, an article revealed that some academics are skeptical about these tests. The magazine states that personality testing was first used by the U.S. Army during World War I to predict which soldiers would suffer from “shell shock.” Today, millions of workers take these assessments each year as part of personnel selection, to improve collaboration and teamwork, and to identify satisfying career paths.

Yet, personality screening is not without controversy. Recent lawsuits have seen courts ruling that certain tests discriminate against protected classes of workers, particularly those with disabilities. Research suggests that many beliefs held by HR professionals about personality screening run counter to scientific evidence. Management scholars worry that focusing on personality as the primary source of workplace conflict can cause managers to overlook the crucial role they play in creating conditions for team success, regardless of team composition.

Personality testing is expected to become a $6.5 billion industry by 2027.

How Should Christians View Personality Testing and Personality Function?

The presupposition of personality analyses is that personality traits constitute one’s identity, and that each person has inherent strengths or “good points” to their personality. This suggests that we should accentuate our positives, eliminate our negatives, and live up to our self-potential. The focus of all these personality profiles is on the self and the functionality of the soul— the mind, the emotion, and the will, i.e., your personality. The implied goal is to become a “better person” or a “better version of yourself” by increasing the ‘good’ and decreasing the ‘bad’ character traits.

This premise echoes Satan’s temptation to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where they were told they could “be as gods, knowing good and evil” for themselves. This is the BIG LIE of humanism, which must be rejected.

Understanding personality must be seen through the lens of God’s design, not just psychological reasoning. The apostle Paul explained in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.” He was writing to Christians, explaining that in our soul, or personality, there is no good thing produced.

All categories of personality analysis are but bundles of our fleshly patterns of selfishness. We must submit to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ within us to overcome these “natural propensities” by expressing His life and character through our desires. The Christian’s focus is not to be on one’s personality (soul) but on the spirit. Man has three levels of life capacity: spirit, soul, and body.

As a Christian, you are in union with Christ. As Paul says, “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). Your identity is determined by the “spirit which indwells your human spirit,” not the fleshly patterns of sin in the desires of the soul, i.e., your personality. For the Christian, spiritual identity is determined by Christ’s indwelling presence, not by our personality dysfunctions.

This is why Paul states in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Our focus must be on Christ and participating in His character to experience life as God intended, not on personality analysis.