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* TEMPTATION * WORD
It concerns me greatly that within the one Biblical text, of
which the English words are most familiar to the greatest number of
people the world over, is one item of which the true meaning is universally
misunderstood.
Throughout Christendom there is a widespread and pernicious
misapprehension of the last two petitions of The Lord’s Prayer.
Matthew 6,13; Luke 11,4:
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(A.V.; Moffat)
And bring us not into temptation, but rescue us from the Evil
one.
(Weymouth,
The New Testament in Modern Speech)
There is a book of short stories by Mark Twain called, after the title
of the first story, The Man That Corrupted
Hadleyburg. The ‘Hadleyburg’ of the story is a
town very jealous of its reputation, built up over three generations, as
‘the most honest and upright town in all the region round about.’
‘It was so proud of it, and so anxious to insure its perpetuation,
that it began to teach the principles of honest dealing to its babies in
the cradle.’ ‘Throughout the formative years temptations
were kept out of the way of the young people, so that their honesty
could have every chance to harden and solidify, and become a part
of their very bone.’
The story relates how a man who had been wronged there devised a plan
to encompass the corruption of the whole town. His plan was successful, and
Twain relates that subsequently the town changed its motto from Lead Us Not
Into Temptation to Lead Us Into Temptation. Although in this he seems
to be subscribing to the common misunderstanding of the Biblical phrase,
his story shews that he perceived the truth at the heart of it. From the
outset, and before the stranger’s plan begins to work, he portrays the
Hadleyburgers as a bunch of mean hypocrites, demonstrating that all their
efforts to remove temptation, to avoid being tested, were futile. In his
final sentence he concludes: ‘It is an honest town once more, and
the man will have to rise early that catches it napping again.’
The misapprehension to which I refer arises from the confusion between
the two-way application latent in the word itself. The verb to tempt
means to put to the test. Thus, one can put God to the test, or
one can be put to the test oneself. Further confusion arises from a secondary
meaning - to entice, or to incite to evil. Almost exclusively in the Old
Testament (Exodus 17,2; Deuteronomy 6,16; Isaiah 7,12; and Malachi 3,15)
the word ‘temptation’ refers to the sin of tempting God - of putting
God to the test.
This same meaning is also employed most notably in Matthew 4,5/7;
and Luke 4,12; also in Acts 5,9. (The reference to tempting God
in Acts 15,10 refers perhaps to testing His patience and mercy, and is omitted
by Moffat.) Rarely in the Old Testament (Genesis 22; Daniel 12,10; Psalms
95,8) but more often in the New, (Luke 8,13 & 12,31 & 40;
Hebrews3,8; & 11,17; 1 Peter 1,7 & 4,12; Matthew
22,18; Mark 12,15; Luke 20,23; 1 Corinthians 10,13;
Galatians 6,1; 1 Thessalonians 3,5; Hebrews 2,18 &
4,15; James 1,12 & 13; and Revelations 3,10) it refers to
ourselves being put to the test. Some references may be taken either way
or both ways: (Matthew 26,41; Mark 14,38; Luke 22,46; 1Timothy
6,9.)
Two texts have furnished the occasion of erroneous teaching on this
subject: 1 Corinthians 10,13 (God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able; but with the temptation will also make
a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it) and 2 Peter 2,9: (The
Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations;) though the
latter may again be construed either way. These texts have been misapplied
to reinforce the misinterpretation of the petitions in question, that we
are praying to be spared from being tempted. A moment’s thought is
sufficient to convince us that such a prayer would be both futile and dangerous
to the health of the soul.
We are on test every moment of our lives. From the moment of our waking
until the close of each day we are obliged to choose whether we shall lie
or speak the truth, whether we shall be pure or impure, just or unjust, slothful
or industrious, selfish or generous, kind or unkind, loving or unloving,
peaceable or violent, patient or irate, honest or dishonest. It is by daily
exercising our wills in these matters that we develop our spiritual muscle,
and just as one who takes no exercise becomes enfeebled, so one whom others
seek to shield from testing, if that were indeed possible to accomplish,
would become spiritually enfeebled. It is clean contrary to God’s purposes
for us that any should become so enfeebled, and therefore inconceivable that
He would grant the prayer of any to be spared from testing. Moreover, no
virtue could be attributed to those who remained untainted by sin merely
because they had never been tested. It would be like praising young Johnny
for his honesty in not stealing your purse when all the time you are holding
him back by the seat of his pants.
In the words of the corrupter of Hadleyburg:
“As soon as I found out that you carefully and vigilantly kept yourselves
and your children out of temptation, I knew how to proceed. Why, you simple
creatures, the weakest of all things is a virtue which has not been tested
in the fire.”
Consider the four personal petitions of the prayer. First, we
are to be given our daily bread, which will preserve our bodies. Second,
we are to be forgiven all our debts (trespasses, shortcomings, sins) and
that will preserve our souls. With those gains assured, and especially the
latter, the greatest temptation of all appears - the temptation to spiritual
laziness - the temptation to say to God, “Very well, you are going to
feed me and forgive me - that’s your job - so I can safely leave you
to get on with it. I can proceed to lie, cheat, steal, murder, and wallow
in filth whenever I find it congenial to do so, safe in the knowledge that
you will perform your function. I will tempt you, I will put you to
the test, just to prove that your mercy and forgiveness is to be relied upon.
I will even make it a point of virtue in myself that I trust in these attributes
of yours implicitly.”
Thus the danger from which we need to be saved, when we pray Lead
us not into temptation, is of being led by our very conviction of His
loving-kindness and mercy, in short, by God himself, into tempting Him, putting
him to the test, in this way.
The most notable example of this is found in Matthew 4,5/7 (c/f Luke
4, 9/12):
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him
on a pinnacle of the temple. And saith unto him, if thou be the son of God,
cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash
thy foot against a stone. (Psalms 91, especially 11/12) Jesus
said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
(Deuteronomy 6,16.)
It is an awareness of this danger which informs The Third Collect,
for Grace in The Book of Common Prayer, at the heart of which the distinction
is made between unwittingly falling into sin and wilfully running into
danger.
O Lord our heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, who hast
safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with
thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run
into any kind of danger; but that all our doings may be ordered by thy
governance, to do always that is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, Amen
I fear that many have misinterpreted run into here as meet
with, as when we say we run into a friend in the street, and have
imagined they are praying for deliverance from physical danger, which, though
valid, is a much lesser concern for a Christian.
Currently some in the Anglican Church are employing and propagating
a re-phrasing of the petition in The Lord’s Prayer in the form Save
us from the time of trial, which consolidates the misconception and makes
it more difficult for a discerning worshipper to perceive the truth.
I cannot escape the thought that our Roman Catholic friends are in
particular danger here because their doctrine of confession to and absolution
by a priest seems to provide scope for this attitude to flourish.
In Robert Kee’s ‘Television History’ of Ireland, Vinny Byrne,
who had walked into the bedroom of a British Army officer and shot him in
front of his wife, related how he had confessed it to his priest. The priest
said, “Did you believe in your heart of hearts that you were doing right,
my son?” and when Vinny said, “Yes, Father”, the priest pronounced
the absolution, and Vinny went on to commit several more such murders.
Also, the Mormons are guilty of inciting us to put God to the proof
in the following paragraph printed in the Introduction to The Book of
Mormon:
We invite all men everywhere to read The Book of Mormon,
to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the
Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if the book is true. Those who pursue
this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity
by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10, 3-5)
Surely it was to alert us to the danger of putting God to the test
that Jesus taught us to pray the third petition - Lead us not into temptation
- defend us from putting God to the test in this way, because that way lies
damnation. We pray that our sense of the wonderful bounty of God, with his
promises of mercy and forgiveness, will not lead us into spiritual laziness,
but that He will deliver us from evil, and particularly from this , the greatest
of all evils because it begets all the others; and here we come to a final
point of misunderstanding.
Deliver means set free, and the error to be avoided
here is to assume that we are praying to be set free from being tested, which
is dangerous nonsense. On the contrary, we are being taught to pray to be
set free from every evil, and especially from the evil of putting God to
the test.
(The Confessions, Book I (10) 15. Augustine of Hippo. A.D.354-430; Isaiah 55,11; John 1,1)
The questing Spirit lights the receptive soul.
Stirring, the mind in turn conceives a thought.
The beating heart sends fresh blood to the brain
To forge words whence the sentence may be wrought.
The breathing lungs inspire the needful air,
Which then ascending through the speaker's throat
Encounters there the elastic vocal chords
Which generate and pitch the appropriate note.
Tongue teeth and lips form consonant and vowel,
And syllables combine to make a word.
Traverse the yielding air, the quick sound-wave
Activates ear-drums, and the word is heard.
Uttered, its task perfomed, it may not stay.
The breath is spent. The spoken word must die,
Must make room for its fellow to succeed.
The ongoing sense will else not signify.
We come into His Cosmos, being called,
Learn from the enlightening Spirit as we may,
Conceive, gestate, and speak our little word,
And swift return to our primeval clay.
Our conscientious testimony given,
Our little task is done, and we must die,
Trusting that another will succeed,
The mortal conversation amplify.
Yet our brief word serves but a passing purpose.
It merely re-interprets, not extends.
We nothing add to Heaven's eternal Truth,
Which all our feeble utterings transcends.
In the Beginning was the Mighty Word,
Perfect, sufficient, flaming in descent,
That did, and does, and ever will accomplish
That holy purpose for which it was sent.