The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 27
Twenty-seventh Day
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. — Matt. vi. 13.
WE do not say ‘ Lead us not into temptation' merely to escape yielding to the temptation, but to prevent its coming to us, according to the injunction: 'Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.' [1] We must fear the ' entering in,' as well as the falling.
These words set forth the necessity for praying at all times: — both when need is actually pressing, and before it presses. Never wait for the temptation to come, for then trouble and anxiety of mind will hinder your praying properly. Pray before the temptation, and so forestall the enemy. God ' tempteth no man,' [2] says St James. Hence, when we say ‘ lead us not into temptation' we must clearly understand it to mean ' Do not let us enter into it. ' This is what St Paul says: — ‘ God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able ’ [3]: — but our ability lies chiefly in our prayers.
‘ Deliver us from evil.’ The Church expands this into ‘ deliver us from all evil: past, present, and to come.' ‘ Past evil,' which still leaves bad effects, is sin already committed; ‘ present evil ' is sin that we may be now committing; and ‘evil to come’ is sin that we fear we shall commit. All other evils are nothing, except in so far as they may cause us to sin by murmuring and impatience. It is principally in view of this possibility that we ask to be delivered from any other misfortunes.
‘ Deliver us from evil': — Deliver us from sin, and the consequences of sin: — therefore, from disease, sorrow, and death, so that we may be perfectly free. Then indeed shall we be supremely happy!
Another version has: ' Deliver us from the evil one': that is, from our enemy the devil with all his temptations.
When we beg for strength against temptation, it is not only against the devil, but against ourselves as well, according to St James. ‘But everyone is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured.' [4] This is the one great temptation; and the devil himself can only reach us by means of it. How extreme, forsooth, is our weakness, when we are our own greatest enemies! And yet we sleep, and fear not! We neglect our salvation, and never realise the need for prayer!