And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:13 Go To Matthew 6
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Will this, again, be necessary in the life to come? “Lead us not into temptation” will not be said except where there can be temptation. We read in the book of holy Job, “Is not the life of man upon earth a temptation?” What, then, do we pray for? Hear what. The apostle James saith, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God.” He spoke of those evil temptations whereby men are deceived and brought under the yoke of the devil. This is the kind of temptation he spoke of. For there is another sort of temptation which is called a proving; of this kind of temptation it is written, “The Lord your God tempteth (proveth) you to know whether ye love Him.” What means “to know?” “To make you know,” for He knoweth already. With that kind of temptation whereby we are deceived and seduced, God tempteth no man.
What, then, has He hereby taught us? To fight against our lusts. For ye are about to put away your sins in holy baptism; but lusts will still remain, wherewith ye must fight after that ye are regenerate. For a conflict with your own selves still remains. Let no enemy from without be feared: conquer thine own self, and the whole world is conquered. What can any tempter from without, whether the devil or the devil’s minister, do against thee? Whosoever sets the hope of gain before thee to seduce thee, let him only find no covetousness in thee; and what can he who would tempt thee by gain effect? Whereas, if covetousness be found in thee, thou takest fire at the sight of gain, and art taken by the bait of this corrupt food; but if he find no covetousness in thee the trap remains spread in vain.
Or should the tempter set before thee some woman of surpassing beauty; if chastity be within, iniquity from without is overcome. Therefore, that he may not take thee with the bait of a strange woman’s beauty, fight with thine own lust within; thou hast no sensible perception of thine enemy, but of thine own concupiscence thou hast. Thou dost not see the devil, but the object that engageth thee thou dost see. Get the mastery, then, over that of which thou art sensible within. Fight valiantly, for He who hath regenerated thee is thy Judge; He hath arranged the lists, He is making ready the crown.
And truly it is a great temptation, dearly beloved, it is a great temptation in this life, when that in us is the subject of temptation whereby we obtain pardon if, in any of our temptations, we have fallen. It is a frightful temptation when that is taken from us whereby we may be healed from the wounds of other temptations. I know that ye have not yet understood me. Give me your attention that ye may understand. Suppose avarice tempts a man and he is conquered in any single temptation (for sometimes even a good wrestler and fighter may get roughly handled): avarice, then, has got the better of a man, good wrestler tho he be, and he has done some avaricious act. Or there has been a passing lust; it has not brought the man to fornication nor reached unto adultery—for when this does take place the man must at all events be kept back from the criminal act. But he “hath seen a woman to lust after her”: he has let his thoughts dwell on her with more pleasure than was right; he has admitted the attack; excellent combatant tho he be, he has been wounded, but he has not consented to it; he has beaten back the motion of his lust, has chastised it with the bitterness of grief; he has beaten it back, and has prevailed. Still, in the very fact that he had slipped has he ground for saying, “Forgive us our debts.” And so of all other temptations, it is a hard matter that in them all there should not be occasion for saying, “Forgive us our debts.”
What, then, is that frightful temptation which I have mentioned, that grievous, that tremendous temptation, which must be avoided with all our strength, with all our resolution; what is it? When we go about to avenge ourselves. Anger is kindled and the man burns to be avenged. Oh, frightful temptation! Thou art losing that whereby thou hadst to attain pardon for other faults. If thou hadst committed any sin as to other senses and other lusts, hence mightst thou have had thy cure in that thou mightst say, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” But whoso instigateth thee to take vengeance will lose for thee the power thou hadst to say, “As we also forgive our debtors.” When that power is lost all sins will be retained; nothing at all is remitted.
Our Lord and Master and Savior, knowing this dangerous temptation in this life when He taught us six or seven petitions in this prayer, took none of them for Himself to treat of and to commend to us with greater earnestness than this one.
