Abishai

"Also Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of three; and he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had a name among the three. Was he not the most honorable among these three? For he was the first of them; but he did not attain to the first three" (vss. 18-19).

This man was honored by David, but he did not reach the highest position. He killed the same number of the Lord's enemies as the first three, so it was not for lack of effort that he lost his place in the first group. So what was it that put him in the second division? Well, when we look at his life, we see that he was quite faithful, but he lacked grace and patience with the failures of others. Whenever someone stepped out of line, he wanted to cut them off immediately. David had to restrain him a few times, as in the case of Saul and Shimei (1 Sam. 26:8-11; 2 Sam. 19:21-22). He did not seem to have the heart of longsuffering, patience and mercy that David had. Consequently, he was not counted among the first three.

You know, we can be like Abishai. We can always be so faithful and righteous, yet lacking grace in dealing with others. Some seem to think they can say or do anything – even come close to being unpleasant – because they are supporting what is correct. Let us be careful here. It is possible to do a right thing in a wrong way and lose a reward. Young brothers who want to please the Lord and do what is correct are especially vulnerable here. We may want to be valiant for the truth, but we can also let ourselves be carried away on this point. We can be fervent fanatics, always trying to be so faithful regarding certain truths, and end up being stubborn, insensitive and end up offending or driving people away. What can begin in the Spirit can deteriorate in the flesh by fighting for God over some issue.

The lesson here is that the Lord is not only taking into account what we do for Him, but also how we do it. He is watching the spirit in which we do things.

We may well ask, "How is my attitude when I interact with others?" You may wonder if the Lord really deducts points for not doing things in a right spirit, but He does. He is "the Father of spirits" and is concerned about our attitudes (Heb. 12:9). He is training us to have "an excellent spirit" like Daniel (Dan. 5:12).