From a netfriend:

In regard to the phrase:

“I cannot say lead us not into temptation if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.”

……..

Unfortunately, because of the change over the centuries of the English language, “lead us not into temptation” does NOT mean “Don’t tempt me, God”

“temptation” for the translators of the Authorized Version meant “hard-testing”

Eg.

Lead us not to hard testing …

/or/ Do not bring us to the test …

/or/ Save us from the time of trial …

/or/ Save us in our time of peril …

It’s a hard passage to translate. Look at five different modern versions of the Bible and you’ll get five different translations:

KJV (1611) – “And lead us not into temptation” [Matthew 6:13a]

NRSV – “And do not bring us to the time of trial”

Good News Bible – “Do not bring us to hard testing”

Jerusalem Bible – “And do not put us to the test”

New English Bible – “And do not bring us to the test”

Christian Community Bible – “Do not bring us to the test”

Jesus taught us to pray saying, Pater Mu (“My Pappa…”)

We need to constantly update our translations to keep pace with the English Language.

BTW, the second part … “And deliver us from evil” in the words of Jesus was:

“Deliver us from the Evil One”

/or/ “Keep us safe from the Evil One’

In otherwords, Jesus referred to “Evil” as a proper name, not some vague notion of wickedness, which is what we usually think of today, eg. the opposite of Goodness and Truth.