The Lord's Prayer, line by line

Lead Us Not Into Temptation, but Deliver Us From Evil

Petition 7 of 8 · Matthew 6:13 · The Lord's Prayer

Jesus teaches us to pray for protection, that God would keep us from being overwhelmed by temptation and would rescue us from evil and from the evil one. It is the prayer of people who know their own weakness and their real enemy, and who ask the Father to guard them and bring them safely through.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.Matthew 6:13 (KJV)

A prayer of humble self-knowledge

Having asked to be forgiven for the past, we now ask to be kept in the future. Lead us not into temptation is the prayer of a soul that knows itself, that has learned it is weaker than it likes to think and that the fight for holiness cannot be won on its own strength. It is not the prayer of the confident but of the humble, who cling to their Father because they know they will fall without him.

It is fitting that the prayer ends here, with a cry for protection. We are still in the middle of the battle, still walking through a world full of snares, and we need not only pardon for yesterday but guarding for today and tomorrow. So Jesus teaches us to end our praying by placing ourselves under the Father's care.

What the words mean

Lead us not into temptation does not mean that God tempts us, for Scripture says plainly that God tempts no one to evil. The word means both testing and enticement to sin, and the petition asks God not to let us be brought into situations where we would be overwhelmed, and not to give us over to the pull of sin. In effect it prays, do not let temptation master me; keep me from the trials I could not withstand, and hold me fast in the ones you allow.

But deliver us from evil turns the same longing outward. It asks God to rescue us from evil in every form, from the evil in the world, the evil in our own hearts, and, as many translate it, from the evil one himself, the enemy who prowls about seeking to devour. Deliver is a strong word, the word for rescuing a captive or snatching someone from danger. We are not asking merely to be advised but to be saved, pulled out of harm by a hand stronger than the one that would drag us down.

Together the two halves form one prayer: keep me from falling, and rescue me from the one who would make me fall. It is defensive and offensive at once, a shield against temptation and a rescue from evil.

Why it comes last among the petitions

It rounds off the prayer's honest picture of the Christian life. We have sought God's glory, asked for our bread, and begged forgiveness for our sins; now we face forward into a world where we will be tested, and we ask to be kept. The prayer refuses to pretend the danger is past. As long as we are in this world, we need the Father's protecting hand.

It also belongs with the petition before it. Forgiveness deals with the sins we have committed; this petition asks to be kept from the sins we might commit. Together they cover the whole ground of our struggle with sin, behind us and before us, so that we come away both pardoned and guarded.

What it teaches about God, and about us

About God it teaches that he is our keeper and deliverer, able to guard us in temptation and to rescue us from evil. He is faithful, Scripture says, and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape. This petition takes hold of that promise and prays it back to him.

About us it teaches that we are weak and in real danger, and that we have a real enemy. We are not strong enough to stand alone, and it is folly to pretend we are. The person who prays this line has given up the illusion of self-sufficiency in the moral life and learned to lean, moment by moment, on a strength greater than their own. It teaches watchfulness, too, for Jesus said, watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The prayer and the vigilance go together.

A common misunderstanding

The greatest confusion is to think this line implies that God lures us toward sin, as though we must beg him not to trip us up. He does not. God tests to strengthen, never to destroy, and he never entices anyone to evil. The petition is not protecting us from God but casting us on God, asking the One who is wholly good to keep us from the evil that would harm us and to hold us when we are tried.

Another mistake is to treat temptation lightly, as if a quick prayer settled the matter and no watchfulness were needed. But Jesus joins praying with watching. To pray lead us not into temptation and then walk deliberately into it is to mock the prayer. The petition is meant to make us both prayerful and careful, asking God's protection and refusing to court the very danger we ask to be spared.

How to pray this line

Pray it before you need it, not only after you have fallen. Ask God in the morning to keep you through the day, and name the places where you know you are weak, the habits and situations most likely to trip you. To pray specifically is to be forewarned and forearmed.

Pray it as a cry for rescue when you are hard pressed. In the moment of temptation, this line becomes a lifeline: deliver me. And pray it for others under attack, for the tempted, the addicted, the oppressed, the persecuted, asking God to rescue them from every evil. In all of it, pray it trusting the promise that God is faithful and will make a way of escape, so that the petition is not anxious but confident, resting in the keeping power of the Father.

The heart of the gospel here

We do not face temptation alone, for our Deliverer has already met the enemy and won. Jesus was led into the wilderness and tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, standing where Adam and all of us fell, and he did not yield. He knows the fight from the inside, and Scripture says that because he himself suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. When we pray this line, we pray to a Lord who has stood in our place and held the ground.

And at the cross he did the greater work, delivering us from evil in its deepest sense, breaking the power of sin and death and disarming the evil one. The rescue we ask for daily rests on the rescue already accomplished once for all. So we pray lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, in the confidence that our Deliverer is mighty, that he keeps his own, and that he will bring us safely home, for he is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

The other petitions and more: Our Father which art in heaven · Hallowed be thy name · Thy kingdom come · Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven · Give us this day our daily bread · And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors · For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen · The whole prayer · How to pray · Prayer