...and lead us not into temptation...

               

           Who are your enemies?

The Heidelberg Catechism’s exposition of the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer refers to the Christian’s three “mortal enemies”: the devil, the world, and our own flesh.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal. 5:17).

               

These are enemies, according to the Catechism, “that cease not to assault us.”  The only way in which we are able to resist these foes so that we are not overcome “in this spiritual warfare” is by the power of the Holy Spirit.  So Jesus taught us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

          But how can it be that we pray to God for deliverance from temptation?  James 1:13-14 teaches, “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: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”   A temptation is an enticement to sin.  A temptation’s very presentation is a lie, for temptation makes the way of sin look preferable to the way of righteousness.  It is the devil that Scripture repeatedly refers to as “the tempter, “a liar,” and the father of the lie.  Together with his demons Satan tempts us through the world and our own sinful selves.

          We pray to God for deliverance from temptation because God is sovereign over sin, temptation, and the devil.  Satan could do nothing to Job without God’s permission.  Peter taught the Jews in the early church that all that had been done to Jesus had been pre-determined in God’s eternal counsel.  In Isaiah 46:9-10 God Himself declares: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is one else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.’”  The Christian prays for this deliverance recognizing that in our fallen world, temptation is an unavoidable reality.  We pray understanding that we are only able to withstand the “wiles of the devil” when we are clothed with the armor of God, the sword of the Spirit in our hand (Eph. 6:10ff).

          There are instances in the KJV version of the Bible that the word “temptation” is used in a different sense, however.  Earlier in the same chapter of James it is written, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations.”  The following verse demonstrates that James is not referring to temptations from the devil, but trials, sent by God to strengthen the faith of His children.  Trials and temptations can be presented simultaneously, but God’s purpose in trying is different than the devil’s purpose in tempting: “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”  It is in the way of overcoming temptation that we experience our deliverance from the corruption of sin; it is in the way of overcoming temptation that God sanctifies us.

“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” (James 1:12).