Pleasing Words

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1 Corinthians 10:32-33 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God -- even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

I did a personality test last year during a training on how to relate to other people, based on their personality profile. In the training, we were told of the characteristics of four types of personalities, which are similar to what we know as sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic. The results of the test revealed that I have strong in a category of people which we call the S-type, and these S-types are those who strive to please people as much as they can. Of course, our personalities are so complex that it is not possible to just fit us in four distinct categories. We are all combination of two or more personalities, and we can never be able to describe and claim to understand a person inside out simply based on a test, no matter how valid and reliable the test is.

Anyways, back to S-types. So yeah, I "strive" to please the people around me. I avoid conflict and as much as I can, I avoid confrontations and would not like to offend people. Even if a friend wore a hideous outfit to lunch, I would not have said a word, simply because I do not want to offend him. And that's exactly what 1 Corinthians 10:32-33 is trying to tell me... in my own selfish desires to please people (so that I would remain contented that no one has been offended), I could have caused someone else to stumble. A rebuke may not be pleasant to the ear, but if said with good intentions, that's sweeter than false praises and pretense. To learn to say the right thing (and not what other people want to hear) is something challenging to me, hence I must remind myself that whatever I do or say, I have to think of its ultimate purpose first.