This verse poses an apparent conceptual difficulty by seeming to ask God to avoid, or to stop, leading us into temptation. (See “Comparison” below for Joseph Smith’s solution in the JST.) The potential theological problem is resolved by reading the phrase as metaphorical with the literary form dictating the phrasing.
In the Greek, “evil” most likely meant, not generic evil, but rather “the evil one.” This parallel is strengthened by the fact that Jesus had come to the Sermon on the Mount immediately after encountering Satan during his forty-day sojourn in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11). Therefore, in the context of Matthew’s Gospel, “temptation” and “[the] evil [one”] are parallel concepts.
The next set of parallels is oppositional. God is to “deliver” us from Satan, the literary structure virtually requiring a counterbalancing “lead into.” Thus, the form of oppositional parallels that Jesus has used so frequently in this sermon should be seen as shaping the language of this particular saying.
Comparison: There is no change in the 3 Nephi redaction. However, when Joseph revisited the Sermon on the Mount as he was translating the Bible (sometime between March 1831 and February 1832), he made this alteration:
And suffer us not to be ledlead us notinto temptation, but deliver us from evil (JST Matt. 6:14)
Joseph obviously saw the possible misreading—that this passage might appear to say that God was leading us into temptation. Since God would not cause us to sin, we need not ask him to stop doing it. The JST solution also removes a potential conflict with James: “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” (James 1:13).