What is the significance of praying, "deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13)?

from the old testament

• The prayer "deliver us from evil" is not found in the Old Testament.

from the new testament

• In Matthew 6:9–13, Jesus taught His disciples how to pray (cf. Luke 11:1), providing them with an example prayer. The first part of the prayer focuses on God and His will (Matthew 6:9–10). The second part focuses on one’s needs (Matthew 6:11), a petition for forgiveness (Matthew 6:12), and deliverance (Matthew 6:13).
• The portion for deliverance reads, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13). The statement “deliver us from evil” is the second half of this petition, where one is asking not to be led into temptation and to be protected from evil. The word for “deliver” has the sense of “rescue.” This is a prayer for rescue from evil. However, it’s unclear whether Jesus meant rescue from this evil world or rescue from the schemes of Satan. This is because the Greek could be translated either way.
• The issue is that the literal translation of the Greek phrase is “the evil.” Articles work differently in Greek than in English and are not always translated into English. Even when they are, while the majority of the time they are a definite article (“the”), they may be translated as an indefinite article (“a” or “an”). For example, the same phrase in Matthew 5:39 also says “the evil,” but contextually must mean “an evil person” (NASB) or “the one who is evil (ESV). It’s clear, in that case, the evil is more generic than “the evil one.” Thus, Matthew 6:13 may be a prayer from generic “evil” rather than “the evil.” This is the way the NASB, ESV, and KJV translations understand this passage.
• However, it could also refer to a specific evil person. The same Greek construction in Ephesians 6:16 is translated, “… with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” In that context, Paul likely means Satan’s attacks. Thus, Matthew 6:13 could be intended to also refer to Satan. Thus, the petition is asking for specific deliverance from his attacks. This is the way the LSB, NRSV, and NET translations understand this passage.
• In the end, it’s difficult to determine the best English translation. However, either works. Whether Jesus meant evil in general or Satan, the ultimate example of evil in the world, this is a prayer to God for help to escape evil. From other Scripture, we know that God helps believers escape temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), uses even suffering caused by evil to mature us (James 1:2–4), promises that nothing can take us from His hand (John 10:28–29), and tells us to leave vengeance upon evil doers to Himself (Romans 12:19).

implications for today

Regardless of whether Matthew 6:13 means general evil or attacks from “the evil one,” the point is that we do not fight alone. Certainly, we must put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10–18), including protective spiritual practices such as girding ourselves in truth and living righteously (Ephesians 6:14). Still, we cannot stand against Satan in our own power. We must not think, “greater am I than he who is in the world,” but “greater is He who is in me …” (1 John 4:4).

Prayer is not informing God—He already knows (Matthew 6:8)—it’s expressing trust. It’s casting our anxieties on Him (1 Peter 5:7) and asking Him to protect us because we can’t remain faithful on our own (Matthew 26:41). God being on our side does not mean that we will escape trouble or will never stumble—Jesus said we will have tribulation in this world (John 16:33), and we all sin (1 John 1:8, 10), causing ourselves grief. But it does mean that God actively preserves us. Whether that’s by limiting Satan (Job 1:10–12) or providing an escape from temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), He keeps us from completely falling.

Romans 8 is the culmination of Paul’s argument in Romans that believers are not under condemnation (Romans 8:1), are God’s children (Romans 8:14–17), and will never be lost (Romans 8:29–30). The implications of that are “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38–39).

When we pray to be delivered from evil, we are crying out, “Abba, Father—help us!” (Romans 8:15) and then trusting that He will.