Deliver Us From Evil
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
As we come to the end of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus introduces us to two themes: temptation and evil. This week we will take these lines of the Lord’s prayer one at a time and then discuss how they may be related.
And lead us not into temptation…
As we begin to contemplate this prayer and what Jesus is teaching us in this section, it is important to talk about the word “temptation”. As many of you will know, most of our New Testament books are translated from the ancient Greek language. This is a version of Greek that is not used today outside of scholarship and archeology. Now the Greek word that is translated as temptation is peirasmos. The definition of peirasmos is “an experiment, attempt, trial, or proving”. Therefore, the temptation here is “a time of trial” or “putting to proof”. It is very much a testing.
What Jesus is teaching us by including this in this prayer is that we need God everyday to protect us in times of trial, in moments of temptation. And by praying this prayer everyday helps us prepare for those moments when the trials will come. Some other, modern translations are helpful here. The New Living Translation says “And don’t let us yield to temptation…” The English Language Liturgical Consultation translates this line as “Save us from the time of trial.”
Read other passages where the word “peirasmos” appears in the New Testament.
What do these passages reveal about trials and temptations?
Share a time when you have experienced such trials or testing. Moments of hardship the Lord allowed you to go through. Has your faith or maturity in the Lord grown after going through such a time?
But deliver us from the evil one…
Both of the lines in this section of the Lord’s prayer are about protection. Protecting us in times of trial, but also, and perhaps more importantly, protecting us from evil or the evil one. Often this prayer of protection is from the evil desires within ourselves, but it is also a prayer of protection against the evil one. Evil is very much both a personal, malevolent force and a form of impersonal corruption in the world, a brokenness that exists in creation.
When you think about evil do you think of an impersonal brokenness, such as a disease? Or a personal, malevolent being or force bent on your suffering (or at least obstructing God’s work in your life)?
Read some passages about evil or the evil one:
Dr. Wesley Hill comments on this section of the Lord’s prayer and the nature of evil: “Evil is not just what we do, but—more hauntingly—it is what we suffer, what we are mired in and encrusted with.”
Take a moment to discuss that quote. Does any part of it stand out to you? Have you ever thought of evil being something that we “suffer”?
Finally, it's important to reflect on the fact that Jesus has already secured our final release from the evil one. And yet, it is still something we suffer, it is still a force that seeks to obstruct the Lord’s will in our lives. From this perspective, praying “deliver us from evil” is a petition crying out to the Lord to return and longing for the day of that final, public, and irreversible defeat of the enemy when the Lord will make all things new.