Matthew 6:13 — "… lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil "
James 1:13 — "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: "
Still today, sometimes it is taught among Christians that God does tempt men, that he leads them into temptations, similar to what otherwise is only attributed to the devil. On the other hand, there are scriptures which clearly point out that God does not tempt people. How can this apparent contradiction be solved?
First of all one should notice that by far the most verses of scripture which speak of „temptation“ clearly indicate or mention that it is not God but the devil („the tempter “) who tempts people. „Temptation“ is in these cases always something by which men are to be separated from God and God's Word, a means by which men are to be moved to disobedience toward God. God of course would never want to bring someone into such a position! Thus it can be said that the statement in James 1:13 expresses the truth very clearly and pointedly. Now, it is a matter of working the seemingly contradictory statement in Matthew 6:13 (as well as perhaps other verses which appear to say that God does tempt), to see how they are to be understood correctly so that they do not cause a contradiction.
In general, it must be noted that apparent contradictions in the Bible have their cause either in a wrong understanding on our part or else in a wrong translation from the original languages. How can the problem with Matthew 6:13 be solved?
The meaning of the term „temptation, to tempt“ must be understood correctly. There are passages where „tempt“ is not used in a sense of „tempting to do evil“ but rather describes a testing or proving. In such a positive sense God can test or prove man as well. But He will never tempt someone in a negative sense as the devil does. Yet, as the continuation of Matthew 6:13 shows, this verse is speaking of such a temptation to evil because the parallel request to „lead us not into temptation“ is „ deliver us from evil“. The solution is therefore of a different kind. If something in the Word of God is not literally true, if it is not de facto correct, then there is a figure of speech involved in the text which must be observed if we are to understand the passage and if we want to correctly interpret it. As James 1:13 states, God does not tempt anyone to do evil. Therefore there must be a figure of speech involved in Matthew 6:13 since God could not literally "lead us into temptation".
This is the figure of speech Metonymy as well as an idiomatic expression, an Idiom, by which it is emphasized that God is indeed not actively leading into temptation but that He is the one who will help us to escape temptation and who can keep us from temptation. The literal meaning of the phrase "lead us not into" is "don't permit us to be lead into (i.e. keep us from being lead into)" . Jesus emphasized this in his example of a prayer when he included this expression „ lead us not into temptation“ in his prayer. God can keep us from being lead into temptation, He can help us to remain strong in the face of temptation. God makes a way, He provides possibilities, to escape temptations or to stand firm in the face of temptations and overcome in the end when we turn to God in prayer.