Topic(s): Bible Study, God's Will

Todd Clippard

Several things must be considered when attempting to determine the meaning of this passage:

1) Jesus is not praying this as a prayer nor is He instructing His disciples to pray it or repeat it as is often the case today. Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray.

2) God cannot be tempted with sin, neither does he tempt any man (James 1:13).

3) God will not allow us to be tempted above our ability to bear it
(1 Corinthians 10:13).

Thus, this phrase must be interpreted in such a way so as to not be in conflict with these other passages.

Of the phrase, Adam Clarke said the phrase was a Hebraism. That is, a phrase common to the Hebrew people that they would all easily understand. The word temptation comes from a word meaning "to pierce through as with a spear," or "bring into sore trial." In the context, it probably refers to situations "which we cannot bear."

Clarke continued: "The word not only implies violent assaults from Satan, but also sorely afflictive circumstances, none of which we have, as yet, grace or fortitude sufficient to bear. Bring us not in, or lead us not in. This is a mere Hebraism: God is said to do a thing which he only permits or suffers to be done." (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft).

God does certainly allow temptations to come upon us as a means of proving His servants (see Abraham, Moses, Elijah, etc), and this phrase probably seeks deliverance from the intense persecutions that would follow after Jesus' ascension and the establishment of the church in Acts 2.