Matthew 6:13

And bring us not into testing,

But deliver us from evil (or ‘the evil one').

The assumption behind these words is that the world faces positive testing and trial by God, and endures various evils, partly at His hand and possibly partly at the hands of the Evil One. This is an indicator that Jesus recognises God as ever active in the world, shaping history, and aware of man's goings on, and that in various ways He intervenes in judgment. It is an idea that appears in the Old Testament again and again, see for example Psalms 34:21; Psalms 37:19; Psalms 140:11; Isaiah 13:11; Isaiah 31:2; Isaiah 45:7; Isaiah 47:10; Jeremiah 6:19; Jeremiah 17:17; Jeremiah 18:11; Jeremiah 19:3; Jeremiah 23:12; etc. Amos 3:6; Micah 1:12, and in Daniel 10 it is connected with the activities of the Evil One and his minions (Daniel 10:11).

We need to recognise what ‘evil' as used here represents. It represents whatever is seen as contrary to man's good, whether natural disaster, war or civil commotion. It is the exact opposite of what is of benefit to man (that is, of what is in that sense ‘good'). Thus Job could say, ‘shall we receive good at hand of God and shall we not receive evil?' (Job 2:10). It is in fact the sense in which God ‘creates evil' in Isaiah 45:7. Thus God boldly takes responsibility, not for the sin that is in the world, for that He lays firmly at man's door, but for the fact that history often does not fall into line with man's plans, and regularly results in unfortunate circumstances for man. It is a reminder that God allows things to occur which are by no means a blessing for man, and can in some way be seen as responsible for them. It is through such things that men learn righteousness (Isaiah 26:9), for there is nothing that shakes men up like disaster.

Thus God is seen as constantly at work against sin, however much man seeks to buttress himself against its consequences. The affluent world may avoid the more obvious evils, (although it still suffers its share of disasters, and will probably do so more and more), but evils still pile on it in the form for example of the effects of drunkenness, drugs, extreme boredom, depression, and disease brought on by sin and man's own carelessness.

So this third petition is a confident request by His disciples that they may be delivered from the trials of God which will be brought on the world as a result of sin, and from all the common ‘evils' (see Psalms 5:4; Psalms 23:4; Psalms 37:19; Psalms 49:5; Psalms 91:10; Psalms 121:7; Isaiah 26:20; Jeremiah 15:11; Jeremiah 17:17; see also Ephesians 6:13) and from the machinations of the Evil One (Ephesians 6:11). They are to know that as they look to Him God will have a special watch over them and will not bring them into unnecessary testing, especially as such affects the world, but will lead them in the right way, and will keep them from personal spiritual harm. The point is that the lot of the world is not on the whole to be the lot of His disciples. This is clearly portrayed in Revelation 7:3 with Matthew 9:4; (compare also Revelation 3:10), where those who are His are seen as sealed by God against the judgments of God and the assaults of the Enemy so that they cannot be harmed. That book, however, also reveals that this is no proof against persecution. God's people will face persecution, but they will not suffer directly under the judgments of God, except incidentally. Persecution is the lot of every Christian in one way or another (John 16:2; John 16:33; Acts 14:22). But the point is that as they pray they will be protected from the worst of the types of judgments that the world has to face (see Matthew 24:20; Isaiah 26:20; Jeremiah 17:10; Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 4:4; Isaiah 24:1; Isaiah 24:18; Isaiah 42:24; etc).

Only eternity will reveal how often this prayer has been fulfilled. A remarkable example of this was the way in which, being warned by God by means of a ‘prophecy', the early Jerusalem church fled to Pella at the first indication of the Roman invasion, thus obeying Jesus' exhortation (Matthew 24:15) and escaping the horrors of the Jerusalem siege. They were not brought into testing but were delivered from evil.

But this also includes the idea that no disciple is to be so overconfident and arrogant as to seek to be tested, or to become relaxed about evil. No disciple is to behave so foolishly as to court trouble. They are not to rush into martyrdom. (It was often those who courted persecution who in the end failed to maintain their endurance until the end). They are to pray not to be brought into testing. Testing of sorts may come, but if it does, it will not have come from God. So rather they must pray that they may escape the testings that constantly come on the world because of its sin, testing brought on it by God (Isaiah 26:20; Revelation 3:10). As we have seen the Old Testament makes clear that that there are ways in which God does bring into testing those who are in rebellion against Him, and while His people know that they cannot expect to avoid the general trials that the world must face, they can expect to be kept from the trials that come on a rebellious world because of their sin and failure to repent To be ‘brought into' such testing by God would be a sign that they were not His.

The lack of the definite article on ‘testing' is against it signifying only the period of testing called the Messianic woes, (and this even though to them the Messianic woes were already approaching), although they may be seen as included. It is a prayer to be spared all types of the testing that faces the world. It is also the prayer of those who are confident of the protection of God under all circumstances. They are confident that they will be protected by His shield (Gen 15:1; 2 Samuel 22:3; Psalms 3:3; Psalms 18:35; Psalms 28:7; Psalms 33:20; Psalms 84:9; Psalms 84:11; Psalms 91:4; Psalms 119:14; Psalms 144:2; Proverbs 30:5).

The corollary of this is that they will be delivered from evil. The ‘but' is emphatic (alla), God watches over those who have made Him their refuge (Psalms 91:9), leads them in the right way, and will not allow His people to stub their foot against a stone (Matthew 4:6; Psalms 91:11). Yet they would also have been aware that in the time of Messianic testing Satan will be let loose on the world as never before, and the idea may be included therefore that they are to pray that they will be delivered from his power.

Some, however, would retain the idea of ‘temptation' to sin. ‘Peirasmos' means all kinds of testing (Matthew 26:41; Exodus 17:7 LXX; Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 6:16; Deuteronomy 7:19; Deuteronomy 9:22; Deuteronomy 29:3 LXX; Psalms 95:8 (Psalms 94:8 LXX); Luke 8:13; Luke 22:28; Acts 20:19; Galatians 4:14), and can include temptation to sin (Luke 4:13; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 1 Timothy 6:9). Against this is the fact that God is said not to cause His servants to be tempted (James 1:13), so that this therefore could not be seen as bringing them into temptation, but the argument given in reply is that the idea is not that God might lead them into temptation, but that as He leads them temptation might arise, and they are praying that this might be avoided, and thus showing that they are aware that without God's help they dare not face such temptation. Whether included or not this is also true and necessary.