Matthew 6:13

Matthew 6:13. And lead us not into temptation (sixth petition). The next clause is reckoned the seventh by many, more from a desire to find in the prayer the sacred number seven than from sound interpretation. We prefer to join the clauses. God cannot tempt us (James 1:13), i.e., solicit us to evil, but ‘temptation' means also a trial of our moral character; these trials are under God's control, and His Providence may lead us into them, may even permit us to be solicited by evil. This petition asks to be preserved from these, and by implication, to be shown a way of escape. In view of the many temptations from within (our ‘flesh' ）, from without (the ‘world'), and from beneath (‘the devil'), to which we are constantly exposed, there is no help and safety for us, but in the personal trust in Christ which underlies the proper offering up of this petition. We should never seek temptation, but flee from it; or if we cannot avoid it, meet it with the weapon of prayer wielded in that faith which overcomes the world.

But deliver us, literally, pull out, draw to thyself.

From the evil, either from all evil, or from the evil one, as the author of all evil, who tempts us. A higher petition than the fifth, implying that God alone can save us from the power of sin. Entire deliverance by God's grace from evil (or from the evil one) is entire freedom from temptation, and looks toward that final redemption in heaven where all our wants shall be satisfied and our prayers, as petitions, be lost in never-ceasing thanksgiving and praise. Hence the concluding doxology.

Conclusion or doxology. Wanting in the oldest copies of the New Testament now in existence; though found in the oldest version (probably a later insertion even there). The Lord's Prayer was early used in private and public devotion with a doxology (after the Jewish custom); and this was inserted first on the margin, then in the text. It is certainly very ancient, very appropriate, and there is a possibility that it is genuine; hence it need not be omitted in using the Prayer, though it must be excluded from the text of the Sermon on the Mount

For, ‘we ask all this of Thee because,' thine, by right and possession, is the kingdom, the blessed dominion for which we pray, and the power, omnipotence, ability to answer, and the glory, the glory prayed for in the first petition which is the end of all our petitions. Forever, as the unchangeable God. Thus the eternal fulness of God forms the basis, the soul, and the aim of the whole prayer.

Amen. The word translated, ‘verily,' when used at the beginning of a sentence. At the close of a prayer it expresses the assent of the worshippers to the prayer uttered by another. Jewish and early Christian usage sanction the audible ‘Amen' by the congregation.