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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
We know from James 1:13 that God does not tempt us to sin. If He did, He would be acting contrary to His holy nature, against His desire for us to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16), and against ...
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Terry Galloway
Supporter
I believe the answer to this question is shown through the book of Job. God allows Satan to do things in people's lives. He has control over everything including life and death. But Jesus was teaching us how to pray for God's protection. For example, I had an experience recently which I could have had Satan be allowed for someone to do me great harm. I prayed iimmediately for that not to happen. After thanking God for my protection though I started to fall into sin by fearing man. I was even failing to trust God that He is my shield of protection. After about 3 days in prayer, God said 2 Thessalonians 3:3. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3 NLT Finally, dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. His answer that He is faithful and guards me from the evil one is a huge blessing. We can pray and ask Him to keep Satan away from us removing sin from being done to us or by us. If it is a sin that we are doing then we can praise Him for His deliverance. God is in control!
JD Abshire
Supporter
Many affectionately refer to this as the Lord's Prayer. We need to consder that this was a prayer outline for the disciples and not a prayer the Lord Jesus could pray personally. As God incarnate, Christ could miraculously create food, which he did on several occasions. He need not pray for forgiveness because he had nothing to be forgiven of. The word tempt is most often rendered as: put to the test, to proove, to test one's faithfulness, quality. As already pointed out, God cannot be tempted with evil, tempted to sin.
Christy Mosher
Supporter
Our pastor taught on this passage, and based on his teaching, the original language actually reads: "Deliver us from the evil one, so that we will not be led into temptation." When we pray the Lord's prayer in corporate worship, we actually say it this way in our church.
Georg Kouz
Supporter
From the ancient Eastern Holy Bible Text, Aramaic Peshitta, in Matthew 6.13 says And do not Let us ENTER into temptation, but deliver us from evil. This is with full harmony with James 1:13. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Ben Zickefoose
Supporter
TESTING and TEMPTING Being human, we are faced with testing and temptation daily. God permits the testing that can present temptation. But, one is tempted when he in drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. James 1 KJV 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. God created human-kind free as moral agents, i.e. He wants His creation to choose to do righteousness. He wants His creation to choose to love Him. God DID NOT create robots. One can choose to NOT love God, or, preferably, to love Him. God does not tempt His creation, but He does permit testing as He did with Adam, Job, Abraham, the children of Israel in the wilderness and all human-kind. God permits His creation to be in many and all kinds of situations where they have to decide for godliness and righteousness, or to the contrary. Consider this reference to the children of Israel: Deuteronomy 13 NIV (Note in particular verse 3.) 1 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. Why pray: "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one?" BECAUSE, we need all the help God can give us. We are human. We are flesh. We are weak.
Olumide Kehinde
Supporter
I suppose it is recognized that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9. The natural mind is prone to error. The Bible says; " there is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are ways of death" Proverb 16:25. Now in Matthew 6:13, The Lord taught His disciples on how to conduct themselves in prayer whenever they come before the Father with their petition and gave them a prototype; 1. To acknowledge the Fatherhood of God. If you don't first acknowledge God as your Father, He is not obliged to you. 2, Adore and praise Him. 3, Desire His rulership, His Kingdom and His government over you and over your situation. 4, that you are prone to trek on dangerous ground if left to yourself and that He only can lead you in the path of righteousness for His name sake. Psalm 23:3. Now the Bible says in Philipians 3:15 that if any one is otherwise minded, The Lord will reveal this to you. That is, if you are not aware that you walking into temptation or are not conscious of satanic plot against you as was the case with Job, you can be sure that God Will redirect or lead you away from it. Again,The Lord declared that it is the Father's good pleasure that we enter not into temptations hence He, the Father, has given us His Holy Spirit John 14:16-17, John 16:13-14 to teach and direct us into all truth, all correctness and all rightness. Therefore, James 1:3 is emphatically correct in the light of Matthew 6:13. That is, God does not tempt us with evil as James asserted and that because we are subject to erroneous human judgement may be walking right into traps of temptation, we should pray the Father to lead us away from it as The Lord has directed. But, and if, a child of God habitually ignores the promptings of the Holy Ghost and enter into temptation even then God will not allow him or her to be tempted above his or her ability to bear up in it. 2 Corinthians 10:13.
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
"Of all the petitions in the Lord's Prayer, perhaps the most perplexing is the phrase "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." The prayer's preceding requests for a holy and loving Father to forgive us and to feed us no doubt would flow naturally from our understanding of His character. But would a holy, loving God consider leading us into temptation in the first place?" --Paul Thigpen https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/webfm_send/387 This petition that Jesus teaches us to pray expresses dependence (Matthew 6:13a): "And don't let us yield to temptation." Harold Wilmington Dr. John F. MacArthur says, "In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus says that we should ask God not to 'lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil' (Matt. 6:13). ‘Evil’ is better translated ‘the evil one,’ referring to Satan. In other words we should pray that God will not allow tests to become temptations, in the sense of inducement to evil. The idea is, 'Lord, stop us before Satan can turn your test into his temptation.'" https://www.gty.org/library/bibleqnas-library/QA0201/is-god-the-source-of-our-temptation God can test us, but He cannot tempt us to sin. When we are tempted, we are drawn away by our own lusts (see James 1:2) -- and regarding God's faithfulness, God has promised to see us through temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). Harold Wilmington Some scholars believe Jesus may be teaching us to pray, "Let us not succumb to temptation," says Ron Rhodes.
Patricia Robinson
Supporter
In the Garden,Yeshua, Himself, asked God to deliver Him from the evil that awaited Him. Therefore, He instructed His disciples to pray that same prayer. And just like Him, we are to submit to Father's will because we trust Him, despite not wanting to be subjected the cruel cross that awaits. This is only normal, and Yeshua understood the feelings of man since He was born by a fleshly woman. There is a Scripture which says that Father tests us to know what's in our hearts.
Mark Vestal
Supporter
Christ was not yet crucified at this point in time and Israel had not yet received her promised earthly kingdom of heaven. The Old Testament prophecy that has yet to ensue, prior to Israel receiving her kingdom, details extreme hardship that they must first "endure" (Matt 10:22, Matt 24:13) before Christ will physically return to earth. You may notice that what Christ said to Israel prior to His death, burial, and resurrection differs from the “hidden” information and instructions that were revealed to Paul from Christ ascended for us. Distinguishing these differences is studying as we are commanded to in 2 Tim 2:15, “rightly dividing” our “word of truth” or “gospel of our salvation” (Eph 1:13), from Israel’s ‘gospel of the earthly kingdom’. First, let's look at the parts of this prayer and detail its relevance to Israel versus us today.
Luke 11:2 – Israel is to pray for her kingdom to come (to earth). That stands to reason as they will be going through times of great tribulation and will be very eager for those days to be shortened (Matt 24:22), and for the times of their promised earthly kingdom and refreshing to begin:
Acts 1:6
"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?"
Next, in Luke 11:3, they are asking God to feed them. This is a literal request for food (bread), as they will have limited access to nourishment while awaiting the return of Messiah and their kingdom to come.
Luke 11:4 - When Christ returns to earth, Israel will enter the Acts 3:19 "times of refreshing". Their post-cross sins will THEN be "blotted out". We however, in this time known as God's "dispensation of grace" (Eph 3:2), have already been forgiven of ALL of our sins past, present, and future. You may be asking "what's wrong with us asking God to forgive us of our sins?" Well, what is God's requirement for salvation TODAY?
1 Cor 15:1-4
"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"
If we are asking God to forgive us, then we are essentially declaring that we do not recognize that what He did for us on the cross was the sufficient payment to God for our sins...which is the requirement for salvation! We are overlooking what the shed blood of Jesus Christ means for us (Col 1:14, Rom 5:8, Gal 1:4). You may also notice that Paul never mentions how we Gentiles can have our sins forgiven in ANY of his 13 epistles. The main point of Paul's ministry is to tell us to tell the world that ALL of OUR sins have ALREADY been forgiven ("the ministry of reconciliation"), and that we are saved upon believing it (2 Cor 5:18-19)! Today is the day of salvation…not forgiveness (2 Cor 6:2)!
The last part of Luke 11:4, the question at hand, is Israel asking God to keep them from temptation...by delivering them from evil. Not as though God would lead them there, but as assurance that they will not go there astray. Delivering them from evil is to keep them from temptation that is of Satan, not God.
Finally, Paul says that we today do not even know how to properly pray (Rom 8:26), but that thanking God should always be our focus (Eph 5:20), being always thankful for what Jesus Christ completed for us out of His love!
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