The Gospel for the Enneagram 6

The Loyalist or Guardian

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

The 6’s: The Loyalist/Guardian

The Loyalist most longs for God’s faithfulness & trustworthiness in order to know that their future is secure. The 6’s doubt their own authority to make decisions, so they look around to find an alternative authority to whom they will give up their freedom in exchange for security.

Sometimes this authority is a person: a pastor, relative, or famous theologian. Movies often mock this type, like Dwight in the Office. “Michael Scott always says this . . . Let me check with Michael Scott about that . . . ”

Sometimes this authority is a system to interpret the world by: a particular denomination, political viewpoint, the rules of logic, science, psychology, the Enneagram. Some people use the rules in the Bible as their security for the future. They feel like if they just obey the Bible’s guidelines, that guarantees that God won’t allow scary things to happen to them. But the Bible doesn’t promise that. Does it? And the Bible isn’t God. The Bible reveals the person behind the book: the only faithful trustworthy person.

See, none of the 6’s systems or people scratch their itch: this need for a trustworthy authority to say their future is going to be okay. So, 6’s develop this love/hate relationship with their chosen authorities, which causes them to be constantly second-guessing and testing their people or sources out of fear that they won’t be trustworthy anymore. My people might turn their back on me! My church might start singing New-age songs! My political party might be corrupt! What will I do if these things I’ve trusted fail?

The 6’s react to fear in one of two ways: which the Enneagram calls the phobic and the countraphobic. The phobic is more like the debbie-downers: “It might rain.” “It probably won’t work.” “You better buy insurance for that.” “I think they don’t like me.”

The contraphobics address their fear by running headlong into the danger to meet it before it meets them. Here’s an example of that from The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective: "A man wants to hang a picture, but doesn’t have a hammer. He wants to go to his neighbor to borrow one. Then he starts to doubt: perhaps his neighbor won’t give him a hammer. Just yesterday he had given him only a hasty greeting. ‘He probably has something against me. But I didn’t do anything against him, did I?’ The man gradually works himself up into a rage against his repulsive neighbor. Finally, he runs over, rings the doorbell, and shouts at his neighbor: ‘Keep your stupid hammer!’" — That’s how the contraphobic deals with fear.

To the 6’s, the future is a scary dark unknown monster, and no past success gives them security in what might happen next.

Examples: Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Richard Nixon, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mike Tyson, Bono from U2’s, Eminem, Robert De Niro, Woody Allen, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Aniston, Jay Leno, Ellen Degeneres, Rush Limbaugh, Frodo Baggins, Peter Pettigrew, & Marvin in Finding Nemo. Peter in the Bible had contraphobic 6 characteristics: I’ll never abandon you, Jesus! Tell me to come out to you on the water! I’ll chop off this man’s ear for you!

Not surprisingly, the Enneagram 6’s sin is fear, but it often masquerades as obedience or loyalty, especially in religious settings. We can convince ourselves that we’re obeying God, when really, we’re just afraid of what God might do if we’re not loyal to him. This makes going to church, reading our Bibles, and prayer a compulsory thing.

This is not Christian obedience. Christian obedience is a byproduct of trusting God’s faithfulness, not our own. God will never leave us or forsake us, even though a hundred times a day we may act out of fear instead of faithfulness. God took care of our faithlessness on the cross. We are secure. We can trust that God is going to use any dark or scary unknown in the future for our good and his glory.

And God wants us to use the freedom he gave us to make our own choices, trusting his authority is at work through us. Take courage, for God has overcome the future already for you. He has planned it to work out. That is the gospel for the Enneagram 6.

A great hymn for the Enneagram 6’s: God Will Take Care of You by Civilla Martin.

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