In Greek, the word translated as “evil” is neuter in gender; in this section of the Lord’s Prayer, the word is masculine in gender. Jesus was saying that we should ask the Father to deliver us from the Evil One, from onslaughts Luther called the “unbridled assaults of Satan,” the enemy who would destroy the work of Christ in this world. Jesus was telling us to ask the Father to build a hedge around us. The petition is not designed to avoid the trials of this world, but to protect us from naked exposure to the attacks of Satan. In His “High Priestly Prayer,” Jesus asked the Father not to take
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