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The Sixth and Seventh Petitions Many Christians are tired of all the fighting that goes on between Christian denominations and within them. Wanting to eliminate the arguing, they have come up with a version of Christianity that has no enemies. They have forgotten that as long as we live in this world, we will have enemies. The unholy three — the world, the devil and the flesh — will be after us until Christ returns. We should not be naive and think that these enemies will never use Christians as their agents in trying to carry out their schemes. Christians can get caught up in many things that are harmful to their own faith and the faith of others. It is therefore necessary to be vigilant and to stand firmly on God’s word. If we move away from God’s instructions, then we will be placing ourselves in danger. As we have gone through the catechism, we have looked at God’s many gifts and His instructions to us regarding these gifts. He commands us to treasure what He has given and established. This is not an easy task because of the opposition that we face from our spiritual enemies. We often slip and follow the wrong path. And thus we need to turn to God for help. The sixth and seventh petitions, therefore, are a vital part of our Christian life for here we pray for God’s help in resisting temptation and for His protection from evil. God forgives us for our missteps and He also gives His Spirit so that we would not fall and be defeated by the schemes of our enemies. The word “flesh” in the Bible is used in a variety of ways. When it is used to refer to our spiritual enemy, flesh is referring to the old sinful self that remains with us as long as we live in this world. Here the Bible is talking about our inclination to turn away from God and the good things He has given to us and instead to turn to substitutes for God and His gifts. These substitutes are evil because they are a deception. There are no true substitutes for God and His gifts. He alone is able to supply us with good things. The word “world” is also used in a variety of ways. God made the world in the sense that He is the Creator of the earth, and plants and animals. The world in this sense is a good thing. The creation is now imperfect because sin has entered the world, but there are still many blessings that God passes on to us through the creation. When the word “world” is used in a negative sense, it is referring to everything in this present age that is opposed to God. The world in this sense delights in power and prestige, injury and injustice, pride and prejudice. Lastly, there is the devil. Some no longer believe in a personal devil. However, the Bible makes it clear that the devil is not some evil force (like an evil version of gravity), but that he is a being that can think and act. He concentrates his attacks on spiritual matters. He especially, wants us to believe the wrong things and to doubt God’s promises. He rejoices when people have a false security and become stubborn and refused to admit they have sinned. Since we have such formidable enemies, we need to be ready. We should expect attacks and be well armed. We ought “to cry out every hour that God would not allow us to become faint and weary and to fall back into sin, shame, and unbelief.” When we pray our trials do not always come to an end, but we can depend on God to give us the strength to resist temptation. When we face trials, Luther urges us to remember: “Your only help or comfort at such times is to hurry for refuge into the Lord’s Prayer and to appeal to God from the heart, ‘Dear Father, You have commanded me to pray; do not let me fall into this temptation.’” Luther also warns about relying on ourselves at such times: “If you try to save yourself by your own devices of thought and feeling, you will only make a bad situation worse and give the devil a better opening.” The seventh petition can be translated either “deliver us from evil things” or “deliver us from the Evil One.” The Greek is ambiguous. Therefore, we cannot be sure whether Jesus had in mind evil in general or specifically the Evil One, that is, the devil. However, it is to be translated the point of the petition is clear. We are to pray that God would protect us from the devil and all things that the devil uses to try and hurt us. God has given many gifts, and He is not only the One who gave these gifts, He also preserves them. Therefore, we should pray that God would protect life, spouse, property, reputation, and so forth. By doing this, we are remembering that we are unable to create the gifts or preserve them and that God alone is our Creator and Preserver. The greatest evil is that we would turn away from God and His word and thus be lost forever. We pray that God would defeat the schemes of the devil so that we would stay rooted in His word and believe it. |
