The Sixth Petition: “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation”

Tertullian. To complete this most saving prayer (“forgive us”), the Lord added: “lead us not into temptation”—teaching us to pray not only that our sins be forgiven, but also that they be prevented altogether. “Lead us not into temptation” means: do not allow us to be led into temptation by the one who tempts. Let no one suppose that God tempts—neither in the sense of wishing to learn our faith, as though He did not know it, nor still less in the sense of delighting in our fall: ignorance and malice belong to the devil. God commanded Abraham to offer his son in sacrifice not in order to learn his faith, but to reveal it—so that in him He might give us an example of obedience to God’s command the moment it is received, placing nothing, not even one’s own flesh and blood, above God. The Lord, having permitted Himself to be tempted by the devil, showed thereby who is the chief agent and craftsman of every temptation. This He confirmed when He afterward said: “pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40). They were already being tempted, since they had left the Lord to pray alone, desiring sleep more than prayer. Corresponding to this is also the conclusion of the prayer: “but deliver us from the evil one”—making clear who it is that leads into temptation.

St. Cyprian of Carthage. Further, the Lord gives us this necessary instruction, to say in prayer: “and lead us not into temptation.” This shows that the enemy has no power over us unless divine permission is first granted. Therefore all our fear, all our reverence and attention must be directed toward God, for the evil one cannot tempt us unless power is given to him from above. The proof is found in the words of Holy Scripture: “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand” (Dan. 1:1–2). Power is given to the evil one over us on account of our sins, as Scripture says: “Who gave Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways and did not obey His law. So He poured out on them the heat of His anger” (Isa. 42:24–25). Likewise concerning Solomon, when he had given himself over and turned aside from the commandments and ways of the Lord, it is said: “And God raised up an adversary against Solomon” (1 Sam. 11:23). Yet power over us is granted for two purposes: either for punishment when we sin, or for glory when we are tested—as was done with Job, in accordance with God’s clear words: “Behold, all that he has is in your hand; only do not stretch out your hand against him himself” (Job 1:12). The Lord also says during His passion in His own Gospel: “You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given to you from above” (John 19:11). Yet when we pray that we may not be subjected to temptation, this very petition brings us to an awareness of our weakness and infirmity, so that no one should be proudly self-confident, so that no one with pride and arrogance should claim anything for himself or attribute to himself the glory of confession or suffering, since the Lord Himself, teaching humility, said: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). Thus humble and submissive awareness and the entrusting of all things to God must come first, so that what is humbly asked of Him with the fear and reverence of God may be granted by His goodness.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. “And lead us not into temptation,” O Lord. Does the Lord really teach us to pray that we be not tempted at all? But what is said elsewhere: “One who has not been tested knows little” (Sir. 34:10)—and again: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2)? — Perhaps, then, to enter into temptation means to be overwhelmed by it. For temptation is like a kind of torrent that is hard to cross. Thus some, without being overwhelmed by temptations, pass through them as though they were skilled swimmers, not being swept away by them at all. Others are not so—they enter and are overwhelmed. For example, Judas, having entered into the temptation of avarice, did not swim across the abyss but was overwhelmed and perished in body and soul. But Peter entered into the temptation of denial; yet though he entered, he was not overwhelmed—he bravely swam across the abyss and was delivered from the temptation. Hear also how elsewhere a band of the saints who have reached perfection gives thanks for deliverance from temptation: “You tested us, O God, You refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs; You set men over our heads. We went through fire and through water, yet You brought us out to a place of abundance” (Ps. 65:10–12). See with what confidence they declare that they passed through temptations and did not grow faint. It says: “yet You brought us out to a place of abundance.” And to come to a place of abundance means to be delivered from temptation.

St. Gregory of Nyssa. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt. 16:13). What force, brothers, do these words carry? The Lord, it seems to me, names the evil one in many and various ways according to the diversity of his wicked powers, calling him by many names: devil (Matt. 13:39), Beelzebul (Matt. 10:25), mammon (Matt. 6:24), prince of this world (John 14:30), murderer (John 8:44), the evil one, the father of lies (John 8:44), and other such names. Therefore, perhaps one of the names understood of him is this one as well: temptation. And this conjecture of ours is confirmed by the very construction of the words spoken, for the Lord, after saying “lead us not into temptation,” adds the petition for deliverance from the evil one, as though both designate one and the same thing. If someone does not enter “into temptation,” he is necessarily outside the power of the evil one; and whoever is “in temptation” is necessarily in the power of the evil one—therefore “temptation” and the evil one are the same in meaning. What, then, does this teaching of the prayer instruct us? To stand outside what is observed in this world—as He says to the disciples elsewhere, that “the whole world lies in the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Therefore, whoever desires to stand outside the power of the evil one must of necessity depart from the world. For “temptation” has no possibility of touching the soul unless it spreads before the greedy the worldly concern, like bait on a cunning hook. But this thought will become still clearer to us from other examples. The sea is often fearsome in its storms—but not for those who live far from it. Fire is destructive—but only to what is placed in the fire. War is terrible—but only for those who have entered the ranks of battle. Whoever avoids the calamities that befall in war prays not to be put in the necessity of going to war. Whoever fears fire prays not to find himself in fire. Whoever trembles before the sea prays not to have need of setting sail. So also whoever fears the assaults of the evil one, let him pray not to be in the power of the evil one. And since, as we said before, in the words of Scripture “the world lies in the evil one” and worldly affairs contain occasions for “temptations,” the one who prays for deliverance from the evil one acts well and rightly when he asks not to come “into temptation.” For without greedily snatching the bait, no one can swallow the hook.

St. John Chrysostom. “And lead us not into temptation.” Here the Savior plainly reveals our insignificance and casts down pride, teaching us not to refuse struggles and not to rush toward them of our own accord; in this way both our victory will be more glorious and the devil’s defeat more painful. As soon as we are drawn into battle, we must stand bravely; but if there is no call to it, we must calmly await the time of trial, so as to show ourselves both free from vainglory and courageous.

“Lead us not into temptation.” Truly, many sorrows are brought upon us by the devil, and many also by people, whether openly insulting us or secretly plotting against us. The body too, at times rising up against the soul, does grievous harm; and at times, suffering various diseases, it causes us sorrow and suffering. Since, therefore, many and diverse afflictions assail us from many sides, we are taught to ask God for deliverance from them all. For at His rebuke every commotion ceases, the storm turns to calm, and the evil one, put to shame, withdraws—just as once, leaving the people, he departed into the swine, not even daring to do that without a command (Matt. 8:31). And he who has no power even over swine—how can he seize hold of those who are under God’s protection?

St. John Cassian. At this point a question of no small importance arises. If we pray that we may not be subjected to temptation, how can we prove the firmness of our virtue, which Sacred Scripture requires? “One who has not been tested,” it says, “knows little” (Sir. 34:10). And again: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation” (Jas. 1:12). Therefore the words of the prayer, “lead us not into temptation,” do not mean “do not allow us ever to be tempted,” but “do not allow us to be overcome in temptation.” Job was tempted, but was not led into temptation, for “he said nothing foolish about God” (Job 1:22)—and did not defile his lips with blasphemy, to which the tempter sought to draw him. Abraham was tempted, Joseph was tempted, but neither of them was led into temptation, for neither fulfilled the tempter’s will.

Bl. Augustine. It is not God Himself who leads into temptation, but He permits one to be led into it when He withdraws His help from a person—according to His most hidden purposes—because that person has deserved it. In certain cases, however, God considers a person worthy of His abandonment and of being permitted to be led into temptation for evident reasons as well. Yet being led into temptation is one thing, and being tempted is another. Without temptation, no one can prove himself, either to himself, as it is written: “One who has not been tested knows little” (Sir. 34:10), or to another, as the Apostle says: “you did not despise my trial in my flesh” (Gal. 4:14): for from this the Apostle understood how firm they were, when by those trials that befell him in the flesh they were not torn away from love for him. God, however, knows us before any temptations, for He knows all things before they come to pass. — As for what is written: “The Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 13:3)—here the words “to know” are placed in the sense of “to make you see,” just as we call a day joyful because it makes us joyful, cold lazy because it makes one lazy—and there are many such expressions found in common speech, in learned discourse, and in the Holy Scriptures. Not understanding this, heretics recoil from the Old Testament, supposing that the words “the Lord your God is testing you” attribute ignorance to God—as if they do not know that in the Gospel it is written of the Lord: “He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do” (John 6:6). If He knew the heart of the one He was testing, what then did He wish to see by testing him? Clearly it was done so that the one being tested might know himself, and condemn his lack of faith, seeing how from the Lord’s hands a great multitude was fed by a few loaves, at the very moment when he had thought there would be nothing for them to eat.

We pray not that we not be tempted, but that we not be led into temptation—just as, for example, one who is compelled to be tested by fire prays not that the fire not touch him, but that he not be burned. “Earthen vessels are tested in the furnace”; and righteous people are tested by trials (cf. Sir. 27:5). Joseph was tempted by the allurement of adultery, but was not led into temptation. Susanna was tempted, but she too was not led into temptation. And many others, of both sexes, were likewise tempted but were not led into temptation—above all, Job. Many are troubled by the fact that Satan requests permission to tempt Job. But is not something similar written in the Gospel: “Behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat” (Luke 22:31)? — By this it is shown that Satan has no power to tempt anyone; and if he tempts, he tempts by God’s permission. God’s permission comes either for the punishment of people for their sins, or for their training and the gaining of experience. And there is a great difference in what kind of temptation one falls into. Judas, who betrayed the Lord, did not fall into the same temptation as Peter, when out of fear he denied Christ the Lord. But whatever the temptation, there is one law for all, as the Apostle writes: “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor. 10:13). — By this saying the Apostle clearly shows that we must pray not that we not be tempted, but that we not be led into temptation. We are led into temptations when those befall us that we cannot bear. But since the dangerous temptations into which it is ruinous to fall come about on account of good or bad fortune in temporal matters—their weight overcomes no one who is not attached to the temporal.

In the book of Job we read: “Is not the life of man on earth a temptation?” (Job 7:1). What then are we praying for when we say: “lead us not into temptation”? What? — Listen. The Apostle James says: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’” (1:13). There is temptation toward evil, when someone, being deceived, falls into sin and comes under the power of the devil. It is in this sense that the Apostle says that God tempts no one. But there is another temptation, which is called testing. Of it is written: “The Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God.” These words “to know” are the same as: to make you know—for He Himself knew already. With the kind of temptation in which someone is deceived and falls, God tempts no one. But it happens that, by His higher and hidden judgments, He abandons someone. And when He abandons someone, the tempter finds the opportunity to do him some harm—for in that case he encounters not an opponent but a compliant listener in the one whom God has abandoned. Therefore, so that God may not abandon us, we pray “lead us not into temptation.” — “Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed,” says the same Apostle James. “Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death” (Jac 1:14,15). What does he teach us by this? To struggle against our own desire. In holy baptism all sins are forgiven; but desires remain, so that, having been reborn, you may wage war against them. The conflict remains within you. There is no need to fear the external enemy: conquer yourself, and the world is conquered. What can the external tempter—the devil or a servant of the devil—do to you? Suppose, for example, someone offers you some advantage to entice you and incline you to a wicked deed—what will he do to you if within yourself you have given no place to covetousness? But if within yourself you have given place to covetousness, then seeing the gain you will be inflamed with desire for it and will be taken captive by the snares of sinful bait, snares that would lie stretched out before you in vain if you were not susceptible to covetousness. Suppose also that the tempter brings forward a beautiful woman to tempt you. If love for chastity has been established within you, you will easily overcome this outward assault, so that the allurement of a strange woman’s beauty does not captivate you—conquer the desire within yourself; you are sensing not your enemy but your own desire. Conquer inwardly what you feel within yourself. Struggle and you will conquer. He who regenerated you is your Judge: He has offered you the contest, and He is preparing the crown. But since you will certainly be overcome if you do not have Him as your helper when He abandons you—therefore you are taught to cry out in prayer: “lead us not into temptation.” — The wrath of the Judge handed over certain people to their own desires, as the Apostle says: “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (Rom. 1:24). How did He give them up? Not by compelling them, but by abandoning them.

“Lead us not into temptation.” Forgive us the sins already committed, and do not allow us to fall into other ones like them—for whoever is overcome by temptation falls into sin. The Apostle James says: “Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed; then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin” (Jac 1:14,15). So that you may not be drawn away by desire, do not consent to it. It has nowhere from which to conceive except from you. You consented—it is as though you slept with it in your heart. Desire has risen up: refuse it within yourself, do not follow it. It is shameful, corrupt, disgraceful, and estranges you from God. Do not give it the embrace of consent, lest you have to mourn what is born of that—for if you consent, that is, take it into your embrace, it will conceive. But “desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.” Are you not afraid of this? “Sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.” At least fear death. If you do not fear sin, fear where sin leads. Sin is sweet, but death is bitter. Death is the ultimate calamity of people: what they sin for, they leave behind at death, but they take their very sins with them. You sin for money: you will leave it here. You sin for other possessions: you will leave them here. You sin for a wife: you will leave her here. And whatever it may be that you sin for—all of it, as you close your eyes in death, you will leave here, and you will take with you only the sins themselves, committed for the sake of those things.

St. Maximus the Confessor. By these words, Scripture shows that whoever has not been fully reconciled to those who sin against him, and has not presented to God a heart cleansed of grief and illumined by the light of reconciliation with his neighbors, will not only not receive the grace of the good things for which he prayed, but will be delivered by a just judgment to temptation and the evil one, so that he may learn to be cleansed of his offenses by removing his complaints against others. By “temptation” is meant the law of sin—which the first man, brought into existence by God, did not possess—and by “the evil one” is meant the devil, who mixed this law into human nature and by deception persuaded man to direct all the strivings of his soul toward what is forbidden rather than what is permitted, thereby inclining him to the transgression of the divine commandment, as a result of which man lost the incorruption granted him by grace. Or otherwise: “temptation” signifies the soul’s voluntary inclination toward bodily passions, and “the evil one” signifies the mode of actually carrying out the soul’s passionate disposition. From these, no righteous Judge will deliver one who did not forgive the debts of his debtors but only asked for this in prayer. Such a person—hard and harsh of heart—is permitted to be defiled by the law of sin, and is left in the power of the evil one, since he has preferred the passions of dishonor, whose seeds are sown by the devil, to the nature whose Creator is God Himself. Indeed, God does not prevent him when he willingly inclines toward bodily passions, nor does He deliver him from the many modes of carrying out the soul’s passionate dispositions—since, placing nature below passions that have no independent being, he has, through his preoccupation with these passions, not come to know the principle of nature. But a person must come to know what the law of nature is and what the tyranny of passions is—a tyranny that has invaded him not naturally but accidentally, on account of his free consent. This law of nature he must preserve by activity consonant with nature, and the tyranny of passions he must drive out from his will and by reason keep his nature—pure in itself, undefiled and free from hatred and strife—unimpaired. Then he must make his will, which ought to introduce nothing that the principle of nature does not grant, a companion to nature. And therefore he is obliged to put away from himself all hatred and all strife toward those who share his nature, so that God may hear him when he utters this Prayer, and may grant him in place of one a double grace: both the forgiveness of past sins and the covering and deliverance from future ones—and that He may not allow him to fall into temptation and become a slave of the evil one—all this solely because he readily forgives debts to his neighbors.

Therefore let us return and briefly recapitulate the substance of what has been said. If we desire to be delivered from the evil one and not fall into temptation, let us believe in God and forgive the debts of our debtors. “But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins either” (Matt. 6:15). Then we will not only receive forgiveness of the sins we have committed, but will also conquer the law of sin itself—as the Lord will not allow us to experience it—and will trample down the progenitor of sin, the evil serpent, from whom we pray for deliverance. And Christ will be our Commander-in-Chief in this, He who conquered the world; He arms us with the laws of the commandments, and in accordance with these laws, through the renunciation of the passions and through love, binds together human nature into one. As the Bread of life, wisdom, knowledge, and righteousness, He draws to Himself our insatiable longing; in fulfillment of the Father’s will, He makes us fellow servants of the Angels, so that even in this life we, imitating them, manifest heavenly pleasing of God in our manner of life. Then He leads us up to the higher degrees of the Divine, which lead to the Father of lights (James 1:17) Himself, and makes us, through gracious communion with the Holy Spirit, partakers of the Divine nature—by virtue of which we will all without exception be called children of God and will purely bear within ourselves the whole Son of God by nature—the very Accomplisher of this grace, from Whom, through Whom, and in Whom we have and will have both being, and movement, and life.

Therefore let the goal of this Prayer for us be the vision of the mystery of deification, so that we may come to know what kind of beings and in place of what we were made by the self-emptying through the flesh of the Only-Begotten, and also from where and to where the Lord raised us—who had occupied the lowest place in the universe, into which the weight of sin had cast us—by the power of His loving hand. And let us love still more Him who so wisely prepared this salvation for us. In our deeds let us show this Prayer being fulfilled, and let us be proclaimers of God—our true Father by grace. And let there be in us no passions of dishonor, which show that the author of our life is the evil one, who is ever seeking to tyrannically rule over human nature. And let us not exchange life for death without noticing it ourselves. For each of them customarily rewards those who join themselves to him. One gives eternal life to those who love Him, while the other, through the suggestion of voluntary temptations, produces death in those who draw near to him.

For temptations, as we see from Sacred Scripture, are of two kinds: one kind is pleasant and the other is painful; one is voluntary and the other is involuntary. The first is the progenitor of sin, and therefore we must pray not to undergo it, according to the Lord’s instruction when He says: “And lead us not into temptation” and “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). But the second kind, punishing our love of sin by the infliction of involuntary sufferings, is the chastiser of sin. If anyone endures such a temptation and is not nailed down by the nails of vice, he will hear the great James clearly calling: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness; and let steadfastness have its full effect” (James 1:2–4). The evil one watches with malicious pleasure over both kinds of temptation—voluntary and involuntary. In the case of the first, by sowing in the soul the seeds of bodily pleasures and stimulating it with them, he plots to draw it away from striving toward divine love. Temptations of the second kind he sometimes cunningly requests himself, desiring through torments and afflictions to destroy human nature and to compel the soul, exhausted by suffering, to raise its thoughts in enmity against the Creator.

But we, knowing the designs of the evil one, will abhor voluntary temptation, so as not to draw our striving away from divine love; and involuntary temptation, which comes by God’s permission, we will bear courageously, so as to show that we prefer the Creator of nature to nature itself. And may all of us who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be delivered from the present pleasures that come from the evil one, and escape the future torments—becoming partakers of the visible essence of the future good things, revealed to us in Christ our Lord Himself, who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, glorified by all creation. Amen.

Bl. Theophylact. Not to enter into temptation means not to rush headlong into temptations. For we must pray to God not that He send temptation upon us, but that He turn it away—and if it does befall us, we must bear it with courage. It should be noted that temptations are of two kinds. Some are voluntary—for example: drunkenness, murder, adultery, and other passions. For we fall into these temptations voluntarily. Other temptations are involuntary—those brought upon us by rulers and the powerful. It is from voluntary temptations, that is, from the passions, that we must flee, praying for deliverance from them and saying: “lead us not”—do not allow us to fall “into temptation,” that is, into voluntary passion.

We are weak people, and therefore we must not expose ourselves to temptations; but if we have fallen into temptation, we must pray that it not swallow us up and that God grant us help and endurance. For only one who is overcome is drawn into the abyss of trial: but whoever has fallen into temptation and conquered it is worthy of crowns and glory.

Symeon of Thessalonica. “And lead us not into temptation.” For there are many adversaries full of envy and always hostile, and many temptations from demons, from people, from the body, from inattentiveness of soul, which encounter all—both the zealously striving and the negligent—only the temptations of the righteous are turned to their benefit, serving for their testing and progress. And even for the righteous “endurance is needed” (Heb. 10:36); for “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41). And from such temptations—for example, one despises a brother, or offends him, or causes him grief, or despises something divine, or is negligent concerning it—who is ever free? — Therefore, praying for forgiveness of that in which we fall short before God and our brother, because we ourselves forgive and show mercy, we rightly pray also that we may not enter into temptation. Even if someone is righteous, he ought not to think highly of himself; for to be humble, to show mercy, and to forgive—this is righteousness.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Temptation comes to us either for good or for evil. Temptation for good is from God; of this David and other saints asked to be tested. “Test me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts” (Ps. 138:23). Thus was Abraham tested (see Gen 22). This is not the temptation spoken of here. Temptation toward evil, or enticement, comes either from the devil, who in every way seeks to ensnare us, deceive us, lead us to sin, and destroy us—or from the flesh, which fights against us with passions and desires—or from the world, which by its deceitfulness, vanity, and stumbling blocks incites us to evil. This is the temptation spoken of here. God, being Good, tempts no one toward evil. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one, but each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desire and enticed” (James 1:13–14).

By this word: “lead us not into temptation,” we pray God that He would by His grace preserve us from the temptation of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And even if we do fall into temptations, we ask that He not allow us to be overcome by them, but would help us to withstand and conquer them. From this it is clear that without God’s help we are powerless and weak. If we ourselves could resist temptation, we would not have been commanded to ask for His help in this. By this we are taught that as soon as we feel temptation coming upon us, we should immediately pray to God and ask His help. We learn from this not to trust in ourselves and our own strength, but in God. When we pray “lead us not into temptation,” we ourselves must not surrender to temptation. “When,” says St. John Chrysostom, “we are called to struggle, we must stand bravely; but when not called, we must be silent and await the time of struggle, so as to show both our lack of vainglory and our courage.”