286. Keep from Evil
2 Thessalonians 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
“Deliver us from evil.” Jesus tells us to pray this because God promises to do just that. It’s always good to pray what God wants us to pray. For this reason we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus commands it and God promises to answer it. The Lord says He will keep you from evil, and He is faithful to do what he promises. God keeps His promises because He is by nature and character faithful. God keeps His Word. If He says He will do it, He will do it.
It may not seem to us that God keeps this promise: that He will keep us from evil. But we define evil differently than God does. To us, evil is anything that prevents us from feeling good, from getting what we want, and anything that includes pain and suffering. To us, evil is anything that keeps us from our goals. This is the definition of anger: when something prevents us from feeling good or from reaching the goal of what we wanted to do we get angry. The very fact that anger is such a common problem for all people proves the truth about what we consider evil. God does not promise to deliver us things that make us angry.
God promises to deliver us from what He considers to be evil. Evil is at base anything that is opposed to God, namely Sin, Death, and the Devil. These Enemies are Evil because they are inimical to God, His Will, and His Word. God is always love, His Will is always good, and His Word is always truth. These evil enemies are evil not only because they are opposed to God, but also because hey are opposed to us, God’s children; they constantly seek to destroy us. And they don’t let up. This is the evil God delivers us from. An alternative translation of “deliver us from evil” is “deliver us from the Evil One,” namely the devil. The Evil One may be considered the source and cause of all sin and evil. Keep us from him. The Lord will do so.
Define evil correctly. Pain, suffering, trouble, and loss are not necessarily evil, although they may lead to anger, fear, despair, and unbelief, which are evil. God will deliver us from the latter but not the former. One of at least ten examples of how God defines evil in a different way: God considers it evil to neglect the Word of God, to despise the preaching of the Gospel; we don’t see it that way. But ignoring the Gospel is a dangerous thing, even if we don’t see the consequences.
But we pray because the Lord promises: Keep us from evil, and deliver us from it when we get into it.