Deliver Us from the Evil One

Derek C. is a Metanoia correspondence student and a MINTS Seminary-in-Prison graduate. He said of going to prison in 2014, “Behind the razor wire fences of prison I came face to face with evil every day. I was tempted by the Devil there in every way imaginable.” 

For Christmas one of my sons gave me The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father by Wesley Hill. This little book is full of insightful observations about the invocation, the seven petitions, and the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer. In the chapter on “And deliver us from evil” Hill wrote the following.

“The Bible everywhere speaks of evil not simply as pervasive but as personal. As early as the third chapter of Genesis, the origin of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is depicted as a reasoning, speaking serpent (3:1). Job’s torments are traced back to the instigation of a mysterious ‘accuser’ (literally ‘the satan,’ in 1:6). The prophet Daniel is visited by an angel who reports a battle with ‘the prince of the kingdom of Persia’ (10:13). Paul warns his converts that they must be prepared to contend ‘against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Eph. 6:12). Peter, likewise, tells his readers, ‘Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour’ (1 Peter 5:8). In the apocalyptic vision that closes the Bible’s storyline, the defeat of ultimate evil is described like this: ‘And the devil who had deceived [the nations] was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur’ (Rev. 20:10). And, above all, the New Testament portrays Jesus as having constantly to contend against a mighty and wily foe: ‘No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man’ (Mark 3:27). Scripture, in short, ‘has a penchant for personifying evil.’ And when Jesus encourages his disciples to pray, ‘Deliver us from evil,’ it is most likely that it is this personal evil to which He refers.”

We know that people have bad habits and sinful tendencies. We know that they fall short of God’s glory by the wrong things they do and the good things they fail to do. Many of us seem to think that if people would learn the right techniques, or develop enough good habits, or just buckle down and try harder, they could overcome and become good. Isn’t that often the underlying message we communicate to our mentees, and truth be told, what we tell ourselves?

Do this devotional. Read the Bible. Pray more. Memorize more scripture. Practice spiritual disciplines. Do those things and you will overcome, you will become all that you were meant to be, you will live your best life now.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not implying we shouldn’t do those things. They are good things, and they will benefit us the same way that eating right and exercising benefits our physical bodies. But there is more to it than that.

I know someone who in the days following the terrorist attacks on 9/11 was tasked with developing a methodology to predict the risk of terrorist attacks to the infrastructure of the United States. She spent weeks studying methodologies from other fields like meteorology and insurance that had been doing risk predictions for decades. She soon realized that there was a major problem in learning from those other fields. Terrorists, unlike weather systems, were intelligent actors that reacted to whatever protective measures this country put in place. The risk constantly changed as the enemy adapted.

We have a living, intelligent, determined enemy who is not dissuaded by our practice of Christian disciplines. He is ever changing and adapting his angle of attack against our souls. He sees us build up our defense in the front, so he circles around us and attacks our exposed flank. He never grows tired of pressing his attack. What can we do?

First, remember that though the battle still rages, the war has been won. Hill wrote, “The New Testament rustles with the good news that God already has delivered us from the Evil One.” Jesus, God in the flesh, entered this world, suffered, and died to defeat evil and the Evil One. Satan wielded death as a weapon against Jesus. He thought he’d won when Jesus died on the cross. But the tables turned when Jesus was resurrected. And we who are in Christ share in his resurrection (Eph. 2:6). We can rest in knowing that in the end, we win because Jesus won and we one with him.

But what about in the meantime? We remember that we struggle against rulers and authorities, powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm (Eph. 6:12). We take a militant stand against the enemy. We put on the full armor of God. We put on the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. We put the gospel of peace on our feet and the helmet of salvation on our heads while taking up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit. Most of all, we pray. We pray, “Our Father, who is in heaven…deliver us from the Evil One.

“The victory of Jesus is real but not currently as visible as it one day will be. And so, in confidence but also in trembling and with tears, we pray for the final, public, irreversible experience of celebrating the defeat of the regime of our Enemy” (The Lord’s Prayer, Wesley Hill, p. 86).

Much love,

Barry