Luke 11:4 - Lead us not into temptation...

     Asking God “lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil” to use the traditional phrasing, leaves open the question, “Does God ever lead us into temptation?” That is, does God tempt us, especially does God tempt us to do wrong?
      Some might suggest that God might do so as the test is to find out whether or not we will succumb. Yet God surely already knows how the individual will respond to temptation. It would be a pretty brutal test, with many failures, if the only purpose was for the individual in question to learn how he or she will respond to temptation. And for something to be tempting, it must be attractive and enticing. If God, literally, leads us into temptation, then God is cast into the role of making evil and wrongdoing attractive and enticing.
      In Jewish Literature, a prayer for retiring says "Bring me not into the power of sin, iniquity, temptation, or contempt; and let the good impulse have dominion over me, but not the evil impulse. In the Jewish Prayer Book it reads "Lead us not into sin or temptation..." let not the evil inclination have sway over us."
      The ecumenical version of the Lord’s Prayer is “save us from the time of trial.” “Lead us not into temptation” can be seen as simply another way of saying the same thing.
      The early church fathers understood this part of the prayer to mean: "Do not allow us to fall into temptation." In some of the ancient liturgies it reads: "Do not let us succumb to temptation." One wonders if this question was raised in the early church, for the book of James makes it clear that we are the responsible ones in temptation. "No one, when tempted, should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin."
       In other words, we can't blame anyone else when we are tempted and when we sin. It's all our own fault. However, honesty requires us to recognize that, if God does not bring temptation or trials, God also does not prevent them. If God is all powerful, whatever happens is at least allowed to happen. To say anything else is to say that God is not God, that there is a power greater than God.
       "Lead us not into temptation," or "save us from the time of trial," both include that acknowledgement, that God is God. God has allowed us to be tempted or rather has allowed us to tempt ourselves. God has allowed us to sin, perhaps in the same way we have to let children make mistakes, or else they will never become mature adults. In fact, the book of James also implies this.
      The African Bible Commentary makes the point that to pray to be saved from temptation is a warning against any smug assumption that we are holy or virtuous. That without God’s help we would all fail the trial of temptation.
     Phillips Brooks wrote: Oh, do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.
      To be delivered from evil will depend upon the individual’s understanding of evil. Is it personified? Is it human? How much of it is inside and how much found in the people and circumstances around us?
      Praying to be delivered from evil may mean to be delivered from the tendency toward evil and wrong choices in our own selves. It may also be to be delivered from the evil choices made by others.

      The prayer to be saved from failing in temptation has been considered controversial for another reason. Was this also the prayer of Jesus? That is, did he ask God for strength against temptation? The movie, The Last Temptation of Christ” raised a firestorm of debate, as though to be tempted is in itself somehow sinful or embarrassing.  Yet the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)  Hebrews makes a definite distinction here between the temptation and the sin. Everyone is tempted, not everyone gives in to temptation.
      Again in the book of James, we read, "Happy the man who remains steadfast under trial, for having passed that test he will receive for his prize the gift of life promised to those who love God." Another translation says, "the crown of life." Not that we earn grace or love from God, nor does anyone ever resist all temptation, but James recognized that temptation conquered leads to a more abundant life.

What would it mean to you to say that Jesus was tempted by the same things that tempt us?
Do you prefer “Lead us not into temptation” or “save us from the time of trial”?
What do you personally mean in asking to be delivered from evil?