“DELIVER US FROM EVIL”
We live in a fallen world that continually bombards us with the reality of sin and its consequences. We can see it first in the natural world. Volcanoes, earthquakes, fires, floods, pestilences, and accidents are increasing with alarming regularity, threatening the survival of mankind.
The intellectual world in particular assaults our faith. Man is constantly seeking the truth but is unable to find it. His judgments are partial and unfair. His tampering with relative thinking leads to inevitable destruction. Man is propelled by his own self-bias. Logic is ruled by pride, intellects are ruled by lust, and material gain makes liars out of men. Human opinions are on a continual collision course with each other. He has erected fortresses of ideology that are set against truth and God.
Grief and anxiety characterize the emotional world of man. His inability to control destructive attitudes devastates his spirit, and his soul is chafed by his conflicts with others. Envy stings him, hate embitters him, and greed eats away at him like a canker. His affections are misplaced, his love is trampled, and his confidence is betrayed. Rich people step on the poor, and the poor seek to dethrone the rich. Prisons, hospitals, and mental institutions mark the moral and emotional upheaval of man.
But without doubt, the darkest part of man’s world is his spiritual life. He is out of harmony with God. The machinery of man’s moral nature is visibly out of gear. He is running out of sync with God’s divine plan. Evil tendencies dominate man from his tainted, fallen ancestry.
There is seemingly no escape in this world from this for the sincere believer. Wherever we turn, we are confronted by pervasive culture in the fallen world. On top of all that, Satan relentlessly attacks our faith. With such knowledge we must pray, “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13).
Temptation or Trial?
This sixth petition encouragingly speaks of God’s protection. At first glance, the interpretation of its meaning seems simple enough: We ask God to keep us out of trouble. But on closer examination, this request is not so simple, and the interpretation is keyed by one word in the Greek text.
Peirasmos (“temptation”) is basically a neutral word in Greek, having no necessary connotation either of good or evil, as does our English temptation, which refers to inducement to evil. The Greek root deals with a testing or a proving, and from that meaning are derived the related meanings of trial and temptation. Here it seems to parallel the term evil, indicating that it has in view enticement to sin.
The Interpretative Problem
God’s holiness and goodness will not allow His leading anyone, certainly not one of His children, into a place or experience in which they would purposely be induced to commit sin. James attested to this: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone” (James 1:13).
Yet James had just said previously, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials [peirasmos], knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (vv. 2–3). Obviously we are faced with an interpretative problem as to whether peirasmos in Matthew 6:13 should be translated “temptation” or “trial.” As James told us, God does not tempt. So why ask Him not to do what He would never do anyway? Yet James said we should rejoice when trials come and not seek to avoid them. So why should we pray, “Do not lead us into temptation”?
The Paradoxical Solution
I affirm with Chrysostom, the early church father, that the solution to this issue is that Jesus is not dealing with logic or theology but with a natural appeal of human weakness as it faces danger (Homily 19:10). We all desire to avoid the danger and trouble that sin creates. This petition is thus the expression of the redeemed soul that so despises and fears sin that it wants to escape all prospects of falling into it, choosing to avoid rather than having to defeat temptation.
Here is another paradox of Scripture. We know trials are a means to our growing spiritually, morally, and emotionally. Christian character is strengthened by trials. Yet we have no desire to be in a place where the trial might lead to sin. So while we resist trials, we realize that they will strengthen us because they exercise our spiritual muscles.
Even Jesus, when He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, first asked, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” before He said, “yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). Jesus was horrified at the prospect of taking sin upon Himself, yet He was willing to endure it to fulfill the will of His Father, which was to bring about the redemption of sinners who embrace the Son.
Our proper reaction to times of temptation is similar to Christ’s, but for us it is primarily a matter of self-distrust. When we honestly look at the power of sin and at our own weakness and sinful propensities, we shudder at the danger of temptation or even trial. That was what James was getting at when he said, “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1:14–15).
This petition is thus another plea for God to provide what we in ourselves do not have. It is an appeal to God to place a watch over our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our feet, and our hands—that in whatever we see, hear, or say, and in any place we go and in anything we do, He will protect us from sin. And when we are tempted, we need to remember that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).
Pass or Fail?
When we speak of a trial or test, we will either pass or fail. Thus every trial God allows can turn into a temptation. Long after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt, he told them, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). Every struggle and trial we experience is allowed by God to test us, to exercise our spiritual muscles, and to help us mature (cf. 1 Peter 5:10). But if you don’t commit the situation to God and stand in His strength, Satan will turn it into a temptation. He will entice your lusts and may draw you into sin.
Dealing with Trials
We are not certain that, like Joseph, we will be completely submissive to and dependent on God in our trials. The implication of this part of the prayer seems to be: “Lord, don’t ever lead us into a trial that will present such a temptation that we will not be able to resist it. Rather, deliver us from any trial that would bring evil on us as a natural consequence. Don’t put us into something we can’t handle.” This is laying claim to the promise, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13).
While God won’t tempt us to sin, He will bring things into our lives that become tests for us. When you pass a certain magazine, book, movie theater, or program on your television, that can be a test to reveal your spiritual strength. If you fail, it will turn into a temptation that incites your lust and draws you into sin.
If you’re terminated from your job, that may be a test. How are you going to handle it? If you take it joyously and commit your situation to the Lord, you will pass the test. But Satan will tempt you to complain and perhaps to do all you can to ruin your boss’s reputation.
Matthew 4:1 says Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” To God it was a test to prove Christ’s virtue; for Satan it was a temptation to destroy His virtue. Job said, “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). He approached his trial the right way. Peter said, “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
The Lord orders our lives so that we will never be tempted without the strength to resist (1 Cor. 10:13). He uses our trials to help us trust Him more and strengthen others who go through the same trial later. He also uses them to drive us to His Word and to prayer.
The petition in Matthew 6:13 is a safeguard against presumption and a false sense of security and self-sufficiency. We know that we will never have arrived spiritually and that we will never be free of the danger of sin until we are with the Lord. As our dear Lord prayed for us in His great intercessory prayer, we want, at all costs, to be kept from the evil one (John 17:15).
Dealing with Temptation
When we sincerely pray “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we also declare our submission to God’s Word, which is our protection from sin. James 4:7 gives us a simple command: “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Submitting to God is submitting to His Word: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11). So the believer prays to be kept from overwhelming solicitation into sin, and if he falls into it, he prays to be rescued from it.
In a cursed world where we are continually battered by wickedness all around us, we confess our inadequacy to deal with such evil. We confess the weakness of our flesh and the absolute impotency of human resources to combat sin and rescue us from its clutches. Above all we confess our need for the protection and deliverance of our loving Heavenly Father.
Will God honor the petition in Matthew 6:13? According to 1 Corinthians 10:13, He will. God will never allow us to experience trials that are more than we can handle. That is seen in Matthew 6:13 in the phrase “deliver us from evil.” God will never let us be tempted above what we are able to endure. That’s His promise, and if we meet the condition of that promise, we can claim it. What is the condition? Submit yourself to the Lord and resist the devil.
What have we learned from the Lord’s Prayer? All that we need is available to us. First we are to give God His rightful place. Then we can bring our needs to Him, and He will meet them through His limitless, eternal supply. An unknown author summarized well the impact of this pattern for prayer:
I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself in a spiritual, watertight compartment.
I cannot say “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child. I cannot say “who art in heaven” if I am laying up no treasure there. I cannot say “hallowed be Thy name” if I am not striving for holiness.
I cannot say “Thy kingdom come” if I am not doing all in my power to hasten that wonderful day.
I cannot say “Thy will be done” if I am disobedient to His Word. I cannot say “on earth as it is in heaven” if I will not serve Him here and now. I cannot say “give us … our daily bread” if I am dishonest or an “under-the-counter” shopper. I cannot say “forgive us our debts” if I harbor a grudge against anyone.
I cannot say “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path.
I cannot say “deliver us from evil” if I do not put on the whole armor of God.
I cannot say “Thine is the kingdom” if I do not give to the King the loyalty due Him as a faithful subject.
I cannot attribute to Him “the power” if I fear what men may do.
I cannot ascribe to Him “the glory” if I am seeking honor only for myself.
I cannot say “forever” if the horizon of my life is bounded completely by the things of time.
As you commit to following this pattern for all your prayers, your entire Christian walk will be revolutionized, not just your prayer life. No longer will you lack for something to say in prayer. Being alone with God will never be the same.