“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13)
In this, the seventh petition in the Lord's Prayer, it is vital that we understand whom NOT what our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ is having us pray to be delivered from. In the Greek, this passage reads:
“καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.”
I've underlined the important words "tou ponērou" to highlight an important feature of this grammatical construction. First, the Greek word poneros is an adjective but in this case it appears alone with the definite article tou (the). When a Greek adjective isn't modifying another word and it takes the definite article it is standing in place of a noun. The name for this construction is a Substantival Adjective. The fact that the grammar in this petition contains this particular adjectival construction informs us that Jesus is not having us pray to our Father in heaven to be delivered from the general evils, dangers and disasters that rack our cursed world. Instead, we are praying that the LORD would deliver us from THE EVIL ONE, the very devil himself. Therefore, as you pray the prayer that the Lord taught us to pray, when you arrive at this petition, know that you are praying to be delivered from the schemes, lies, deceptions, false teaching and temptations of Satan, the one who hates you, who never sleeps, who is actively plotting and scheming to destroy you and drag you into hell with him and his demons.
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15–16)
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me,is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”” (John 10:28–30)




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