The Gospel of the Enneagram 1
The Reformer
The 1: The Reformers
The Enneagram 1’s are known as the reformers or perfectionists. Enneagram 8’s feel the need to challenge and control forces outside themselves; 1’s feel a need to control themselves: that is, choose what they will or won’t do, and for no one else to hold sway over them.
1’s find themselves easier to control when in a controlled environment, so you will find they create very orderly settings for themselves. Their homes, personal attire, the way they express emotions, the way they stand, the way they schedule their lives, their children, their employees, their desks, their cars. They can be all very controlled.
The biggest threat to a 1’s autonomy is other’s rules, expectations, or opinions about how they ought to live. When 1’s hear things like “you ought to” or “you should” or “you need to”, it feels like an assault on their freedom, like someone is trying to take away the most precious thing to them: their autonomy. So 1’s try to beat people to the punch by meeting and exceeding all rules. 8’s think of themselves as the bad boys and girls. 1’s think of themselves as the good boys and girls, the self-governed, mature people who are always fair to everybody.
Religious 1’s even try to keep God from telling them what to do following all God’s rules. In sermons, the 1’s take special note of admonishments, adding these to their list of expectations to meet. And then they can become anal-retentive trying to meet them. Their primary sin is anger or impatience that they haven’t been able to make themselves or anything be perfect yet. But they control their anger, repressing it, holding it prisoner inside themselves.
Examples of people who act like 1’s: Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Osama Bin Laden, Michele Obama,, Martha Stewart, Captain America & Thanos in the Avengers, Javert from Le Mes, Hermione from Harry Potter, & Mary Poppins. The pharisees in the Bible are often examples of ones. Paul was most likely a one.
The gospel for the 1’s is yes, the righteous requirement of the law met in Jesus Christ, but it’s more than that. It’s a new order of control. See, the 1’s grow up believing they’re in control of themselves, but the Bible tells us that we are either mastered by the flesh or the spirit. So every time a 1 does the right thing in the flesh, they do it for the wrong reasons—to have autonomy. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But the gospel says, “You, however, 1’s are no longer trapped by your need to control but are freed by the Spirit, if indeed you’ve given the Spirit of God the control in your life. Because if Christ is in you, then even though your old identity is subject to just doing it yourself, the Spirit—because of Jesus’ righteousness—gives you permission to be a child again and make mistakes.” This is an Enneagram-1 rewrite of Romans 8:9-10
A 1 in the flesh tries to be master of themselves. A 1 in the Spirit knows who their master is and has surrendered power to God to make them good. God then turns around and gives the power back, a new power, a Holy Spirit power that is patient in the process. When a redeemed 1 chooses to do the right thing, they know it’s not them doing it. It’s Jesus, making a new thing in them, and thus, they have hope and joy while learning like a child.
That is the gospel for the Enneagram 1.