Matthew 6:13: Neither Arrogance Nor Despair in the Face of Temptation

Introduction

"Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." William Philip, senior pastor of The Tron Church in Glasgow, reaches the final request of the Lord's Prayer in his series on the prayer Jesus teaches his disciples (Matthew 6:9-13).

Like the earlier requests, this one is both a petition and an acknowledgment. We ask for God's protection because we know we need it, and we ask with confidence because God has promised it and will give it.

To shed light on this verse, the preacher draws on James 1. From it he takes two attitudes to ask God for in times of trial: acceptance rather than arrogance, and dependence rather than despair.

Message Outline

1. A Humble Prayer for People Who Hunger for Righteousness

The week before, the series was about daily bread and daily forgiveness: God's bread, God's way, "not our bread our way." Bread for earthly life, forgiveness for eternal life.
This last request acknowledges our weakness and our dependence on the Father, especially when it comes to temptation, where "we feel our weakness very acutely." But the Bible tells us that God's grace is enough for us.
At the end of chapter 5, Jesus says: "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). How is that possible, unless God gives us his own righteousness?
That is the message of the Beatitudes: blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:3, 6). They hunger for what they do not have, and they are the ones who will be filled.
This prayer is the opposite of the religious hypocrisy Jesus denounces throughout chapter 6. It says: Lord, in our weakness we need you to lead us, and in our frailty, we need you to deliver us.

2. What We Are Really Asking

The word translated "temptation" covers trials of every kind, not only the enticement to do wrong, although it includes that.
"Deliver us from evil" reads better as "deliver us from the evil one." The same word describes the evil one who comes to snatch away the seed in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:19). On the eve of the cross, Jesus prays that the Father would keep them from the evil one (John 17:15).
"Bring us not" is an unusual turn of phrase. "There's a fancy name for it, litotes, but you don't need to know that": it is a way of asking for the opposite. Do not lead us into the trial to the point of being swallowed up by it, lead us through it, and even to victory.
In Gethsemane, Jesus tells his disciples: "Watch and pray, that you don't enter into temptation" (Matthew 26:41). Not sinking under the trial, but standing firm in the middle of it.
Yet Jesus announced: "In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Trials will come. But there are two ways of looking at them and responding to them, and two very different outcomes in our hearts.

3. Two Ways of Looking at Trials

"Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God,' for God can't be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one" (James 1:13). It is our own desires that draw us away and entice us (James 1:14). If they are left to simmer, they lead to sin and death (James 1:15).
Yet James also writes: count it all joy when you fall into various trials (James 1:2). The word "trials" is the same as the word "temptation" in verse 13.
James does not contradict himself. God never intends trials for our harm or our ruin, but for our good. The testing of our faith produces perseverance, and perseverance fully worked out makes us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:3-4).
So there is the right way, which sees things from God's heavenly perspective, and the wrong way, which sees them only with an earthly, sinful eye. This is the contrast that runs through all of Matthew 6.
The preacher suggests putting the word "you" at the start of the verse: you, Lord, do not lead us into a trial that sets us back and brings us to defeat. You lead us through the trial to make us grow. This prayer is also a confession of faith.

4. Acceptance Rather Than Arrogance: "It Will Never Happen to Me"

The first kind of arrogance is thinking you will never fall into a particular temptation, while looking at someone who has landed in terrible trouble. It is the attitude of the Pharisee whom Jesus attacks throughout the chapter, the one who deceives himself even more than he deceives others.
Those who think this way have not understood the reality of the human heart. "The heart is deceitful above all things" (Jeremiah 17:9). Jeremiah is not talking about the heart in general: "He is talking about your heart and my heart."
William Philip tells of a conversation with a businessman, once a member of the church, who worked for a large retail chain. The biggest embezzlement he ever dealt with came from a respectable, middle-aged woman who worked in the cash room. She was not poor, not in debt, not a gambler. She explained: "I didn't need the money. But being around so much money all the time, I couldn't resist the urge to take some."
The same goes for marital unfaithfulness: many think they would never cheat on their spouse. Often, he says, it is mostly that the opportunity has not come up. "If that is the case, we should thank God for it, shouldn't we?"
Jesus tells us: do not be arrogant. Accept that you need God's help, pray "bring me not into temptation," and be determined not to take any steps that contradict your prayers.

5. Acceptance Rather Than Arrogance: "It's God's Fault"

The second kind of arrogance is saying: God put me in this situation, it's not my fault. James answers: it is your own desires that you let simmer.
Paul says the same to the Corinthians: no temptation has taken you except what is common to man, and God is faithful and will make the way of escape. "Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry" (1 Corinthians 10:13-14). "It is not an excuse for sin, it is a serious warning."
An immature faith, often that of the new convert, has great confidence in itself: "I will never fall again." The preacher does not want to belittle that joy, but Christian maturity is measuring more and more how weak we are and how dependent on God's help.
"The longer I have been a Christian, the more I appreciate the words of that hymn: I need thee every hour," I need you every hour.
To pray like this is not to pray with the attitude of James 1:13, which blames God, but with that of James 1:2, which blesses God in the middle of the trial. Peter says the same: the testing of your faith will result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Job is the example. His friends saw his trials only through an earthly eye and accused God or Job himself. But God vindicated his servant Job (Job 42:7). In the midst of his distress, Job said: "But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I will come out like gold" (Job 23:10).

6. Dependence Rather Than Despair: The Evil One Is Defeated

"Deliver us from the evil one" is a confession of trust in what God has promised and accomplished in Jesus Christ. The first promise in the Bible, in Eden, announces that the offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15).
On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus declares: "Now the prince of this world will be cast out" (John 12:31). And John writes: "The Son of God was revealed for this reason, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).
To pray like this is to ask God to make real today, in our experience, what he made real forever through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The devil is our adversary, who prowls around looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He wants to oppose everything God is doing in us by his Spirit.
He is also the accuser of the brothers, who accuses them day and night before God (Revelation 12:10). He wants to undermine our assurance of forgiveness. We are not yet sinless, but we need to remind ourselves constantly that Christ's sacrifice is at work for us.
The preacher admits that he too has felt the crushing weight of his own sin. But Jesus has destroyed the devil and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives (Hebrews 2:14-15). Our prayer becomes: "Silence these taunts. Crush these accusations. Remind me that his power over me is broken."

7. "Yahweh Rebuke You, Satan!"

In Zechariah 3, the prophet sees Joshua, the high priest, standing before the Lord, accused by Satan and dressed in filthy clothes that represent the people's sin. A voice rings out: "Yahweh rebuke you, Satan!" The filthy clothes are taken off him and he is clothed in rich robes.
That is what this prayer means: not a cry of despair, but an expression of faith, trust, and dependence on God.
That is why James can say: "Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:7-8). We cannot deliver ourselves, but God can and has.
If we pray with acceptance and dependence, our trials will not make us bitter Christians who accuse God, but better Christians who bless him, on the way to the crown of life that has been promised (James 1:12).
Jesus said to Simon Peter, weak and unstable: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat, but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn't fail" (Luke 22:31-32).
In the upper room, Jesus added: "Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word" (John 17:20). "Who is that? It's you and me." So we can pray with absolute confidence.

Key Takeaways

"Bring us not into temptation" asks God to lead us through the trial without our being swallowed up by it. God tempts no one.
The same trial can make us fall or make us persevere: it all depends on how we look at it.
Do not think "it will never happen to me," and do not blame God: acknowledge your need for his help.
Christian maturity is measured by a growing awareness of our weakness and our need for God every hour.
The evil one is defeated at the cross. In the face of his accusations, lean on God's promise and on Jesus' prayer for his own.

Personal Application

Is there a temptation you think you are safe from? What does that confidence reveal about how well you know your own heart?
In what trial are you currently tempted to blame God rather than ask him to produce perseverance in you?
What concrete steps contradict your prayers, and what does it mean for you to "flee" this week?
Which accusation from the evil one comes up most often in your thoughts, and which promise of God can you set against it?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Does God tempt us, since we pray "bring us not into temptation"?

No. James 1:13 says it plainly: God himself tempts no one. For William Philip, the request is a litotes, a way of asking for the opposite: do not let us be swallowed up by the trial, lead us through it so that we triumph over it. It is our own desires that draw us toward sin.

Should we say "deliver us from evil" or "deliver us from the evil one"?

The preacher prefers "the evil one," as the footnote in his Bible suggests. The same word describes the evil one in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:19), and Jesus prays that the Father would keep his disciples from the evil one (John 17:15).

What are the two forms of arrogance in the face of temptation?

The first is thinking "it will never happen to me," forgetting that the heart is deceitful above all things. The second is blaming God: "he is the one who put me in this situation." By contrast, praying Matthew 6:13 means humbly accepting that you need God's help.