Lead us not into Temptation...

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How are we to understand this line of the Lords Prayer? Under what circumstances would God ever lead us into temptation?
 
LongingSoul said:
How are we to understand this line of the Lords Prayer? Under what circumstances would God ever lead us into temptation?
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“Lead us not into temptation” is an archaic way of saying, “Put us not to the test.” IOW, let us not be tested beyond our endurance/the limits of our faith. It does not mean that God leads us into temptation. Rather, like Jesus who was tested 40 days in the desert, we are asking for God’s grace to withstand the tests/trials of life.
 
I always thought this to mean allowing Satan to lead us into temptation. I realize this may not be entirely correct, but it’s my best guess, and it seems to work for me.

LOVE! 🙂
 
Robert_Sock said:
I always thought this to mean allowing Satan to lead us into temptation. I realize this may not be entirely correct, but it’s my best guess, and it seems to work for me.

LOVE! 🙂
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Years ago we had a pastor who was from New York who as a kid thought the prayer went" Lead us not into Penn Station."😃
 
TimothyH said:
Yes, the actual translation is closer to do not put us to the final test. It is literally something like…

and no you-may-be-into-carrying us into trial
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Close, but even in the Latin, there is a subjunctive there. “Et ne nos inducas in tentationem.” (And may you not lead us into temptation/trial/test etc.)

Looks like good ole King Henry VIII missed that one.
 
In Spanish the translation says, “No nos dejes caer en tentación”
which translates closer to “don’t let us fall into temptation.” That has always made more sense to me.
 
LegoGE1947 said:
Years ago we had a pastor who was from New York who as a kid thought the prayer went" Lead us not into Penn Station."😃
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My daughter wondered why we proclaimed, “Rice has died, rice has risen, rice will come again” at Mass. A mystery of faith indeed.

She thought that Benedict XVI was the Poke.

-Tim-
 
Being the perfect (and only) prayer given us by our Lord, He teaches us to ask the Father to spare us the test of our faith. Look at His agony in Gethsemane. There, our Lord lived out the very prayer that he had given to us - a fulfillment of His own prophecy. It was there that He conformed His human will perfectly to the Father’s and drank from the chalice. Today, we would say that He “walked the walk.”

Consider the words of Raphael the Archangel to Tobias, regarding the meaning and purpose of temptation/testing:
Tobias 12:13
“Then, because thou hadst won his favour, needs must that trials should come, and test thy worth.”
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We heard, both at Jesus’ baptism as well as during the transfiguration, that the Father’s favor rested upon Him. Thus, both Christ’s temptation in the desert, as well as His agony at Gethsemane (the entire passion, actually) were fulfillments of Raphael’s words. I formerly had difficulty with the “temptation” portion of the Lord’s prayer. Yet, understanding it as testing clears the entire matter up. In the scriptures, as in life, the Lord tests those whom He loves, pointedly from Abraham onwards. This is most obvious in the case of His beloved Son, in Whom He is well pleased.

Thus, the temptations that arrive are not a negative as we might view them, but signs that the Refiner’s fire is being applied to us out of the purity of His love. We are called to be faithful and embrace those temptations, as we do our cross, calling on the Lord for strength to endure them. If the Father is pleased with us, we will be well-tempted.

I note that the Father did not leave us orphans in our temptations. When we fall, His love has provided the Sacrament of reconciliation - which is again given out of Love. The choice to confess our sins, or not, is also a type of temptation which proves our love of and fidelity to God.
 
Funny, I was researching for the meaning the lords prayer. This is what I found

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION:

We ask God not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle between flesh and spirit. This petition implores the spirit of discernment and strength (cf. CCC 2846; Gal 5:21, Mt 6:21, 24; 1 Cor 10:13).

VI. “AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION”
2846 This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to “lead” us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both “do not allow us to enter into temptation” and "do not let us yield to temptation."150 “God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one”;151 on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle “between flesh and spirit”; this petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength.

2847 The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man,152 and temptation, which leads to sin and death.153 We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a “delight to the eyes” and desirable,154 when in reality its fruit is death.

God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings. . . . There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.155
2848 “Lead us not into temptation” implies a decision of the heart: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. . . . No one can serve two masters."156 "If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."157 In this assent to the Holy Spirit the Father gives us strength. "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it."158

2849 Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission and in the ultimate struggle of his agony.159 In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is “custody of the heart,” and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Keep them in your name."160 The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch.161 Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battle; it asks for final perseverance. "Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake."162
 
Della said:
“Lead us not into temptation” is an archaic way of saying, “Put us not to the test.” IOW, let us not be tested beyond our endurance/the limits of our faith. It does not mean that God leads us into temptation. Rather, like Jesus who was tested 40 days in the desert, we are asking for God’s grace to withstand the tests/trials of life.
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Spot on, Della!👍
 
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