Model Marriage
our personalities. We must therefore be conscious of these realities and fight every negative
tendency that is common to our personalities.
The most powerful single human influence on any person’s behaviour is his temperament,
which is usually a combination of at least two temperaments––one primary and the other
secondary. People are subconsciously attracted to another person’s strengths that correspond to
their weaknesses.^4
In Proverbs 30:11-14, the writer Agur, to whom many Bible scholars attribute the chapter,
recognizes four specific kinds of people: melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguine and choleric.
Unfortunately, Agur only viewed them in negative expressions because people are usually more
easily diagnosed through their weaknesses than their strengths. He also describes man in the state
that he is born––Proverbs 30:11-14 (New American Standard Bible).
There is a generation that curse their father, And bless not their mother. There
is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, And (yet) are not washed from
their filthiness. There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes! And their
eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are (as) swords, and their
jaw teeth (as) knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from
among men.Melancholic: There is a kind of man...who curses his father, And does not bless his mother
(Proverbs 30:11).
Phlegmatic: There is a kind ...who is pure in his own eyes, yet is not washed from his filthiness
(Proverbs 30:12).
Sanguine: There is a kind...oh how lofty are his eyes, And his eyelids are raised in arrogance
(Proverbs 30:13).
Choleric: There is a kind of man...whose teeth are like swords, And his jaw teeth like knives,
to devour the afflicted from the earth, And the needy from among men (Proverbs 30:14).
The combination of your parents’ or grandparents’ genes and chromosomes at the time of
conception determines your basic temperament. This is what is responsible for your actions,
reactions and emotional responses.