Pope Francis has another problem with the Bible

The pope has a problem with the Bible. Again. Here’s an excerpt from The New York Times (December 8, 2017 ) “Lost in Translation: The Pope Ponders an Update to Lord’s Prayer”

Pope Francis said the common rendering of one line in the prayer—“lead us not into temptation” —was “not a good translation” from ancient texts.“Do not let us fall into temptation,” he suggested, might be better because God does not lead people into temptation; Satan does. “A father doesn’t do that,” the pope said. “He helps you get up right away. What induces into temptation is Satan.”

In essence, the pope said, the prayer, from the Book of Matthew, is asking God, “When Satan leads us into temptation, You please, give me a hand.” French Catholics adopted such a linguistic change this week, and the pope suggested that Italian Catholics might want to follow suit.

The problem with the Pope’s position is that the Greek does, in fact, say “Lead us not into temptation.” That is a good translation. The words “allow” and “fall” are not in the Greek, nor is there a passive tense. There is an active verb: lead.

We can’t change the sense of God’s word to suit our sensibilities. So how do we understand “Lead us not into temptation”?

Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

There are two forces that bring us to sin: the magnetism of sinful flesh and the lure of Satan.

2 Ways God Helps Us Avoid The Destructive Consequences Of Sin In Our Lives

1. Direction To Safety (Away From Self)

At first this prayer may seem a little odd, and not only to the Pope. Why does Jesus ask God to lead us NOT into temptation? Would God ever lead us INTO temptation?

James says: 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. (James 1:13)

God never tempts us to sin. Ever.

So, why pray lead us not into temptation if that’s already God’s will anyway?

As with all the requests in the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking God for something that is already his will. Every request is for something God wants to do anyway; this is the key to effective prayer. God wants us to pray for these items, so that we are learning daily to desire what he desires and thus line our will up with his.

So what are we actually asking God to lead us away from, when we pray “Lead us not into temptation”?

Quite simply we are asking God to lead us away from ourselves as our first source of temptation. Remember James 1:14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Our desires are tugged around by our fallen nature, or what the Bible calls our flesh. Your sin nature—flesh—is a saboteur, a traitor to the cause, hell-bent on sinking your godly desires to please God. You know this if you’ve ever tried a … diet.

Drug addicts know this, porn addicts know this. The Apostle Paul knew this…

Rom 7:18-19 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I don’t do the good I want but the evil I don’t want, is what I keep on doing.

Your flesh is a sin magnet pulling you into temptation. You need God to lead you out of it.

This is why we pray that God will lead us not into the way we naturally want to go.

How does God lead us out of temptation of self?

· Through our conscience, informed by the word.
· Through the conviction of the Spirit.
· Through the wisdom of counselors.
· Through the preaching of sermons.
· Through church discipline.

The more you know your Bible, and the better your church is, and the more godly counselors you have, the safer you will be from temptation.

But there exists another force at work: temptations aren’t just lying around as landmines, some are guided missiles that are aimed at you coming from…Satan.

2. Deliverance from Danger (Satan)

Matthew 6:13 …but deliver us from evil (ESV), or “deliver us from the evil one” (NIV)

I concur with John Piper, who says:

I think when it says “deliver us from evil,” it probably does mean “the evil one,” but it works either way because he is behind every temptation. The primary strategy of the devil is to deceive us. He is primarily a deceiver.”

Satan is not bound, he prowls around hunting Christians. Your flesh is already predisposed to choose sin, but Satan sets up schemes in society and philosophies and the media to make it even easier for you to sin…

Adam and Eve had no sin nature and were not carried away and enticed by their own lusts. Their temptation to sin came from outside themselves, it came from Satan.

Since Jesus had no sin nature of his own, Satan resorted to the same tactic that worked on Eve, only to have his best-laid plans foiled by Christ’s impervious impeccability.

But we don’t have a sinless nature. We live in a minefield of temptation that our flesh is already predisposed toward. Traps are hidden at every turn: tripwires of worry, claymores of coveting, limpets of lust.

Luke 17:1 [Jesus] said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!”

We cannot avoid encountering temptation, but we can avoid falling for it. We can’t avoid a world with traps, but we can employ the x-ray vision of biblical wisdom to spot them, and tread around them, disarm them, flee from them, and expose them.

The god of this world has rigged our lives with booby-traps. Every song on the radio, every movie on TV, every lecture at university, every advertisement, every conversation with other sinners… may be harmless … or it may be laced with a temptation to evil.

God is not leading you into that minefield, you’re already there. You live in Satan’s battlefield AND your own sin nature is set on self-destruction.

To win this battle you need to know it’s raging and be praying that God helps get you out of trouble, deliver us from evil.

Conclusion

So, if you are a child of God, pray daily for God to direct you toward the safety of his will and to deliver you from the onslaught of Satan’s schemes. If you are not a child of God, then you have no protection against Satan. Accept the death of Jesus in your place, confess your sin and know God’s forgiveness and his protection against the temptation of yourself and of the evil one. Author: Cripplesgate