“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (2 Timothy 4:17,18)
Paul was exposed to continual danger as a godly believer. He understood that the light he carried with him exposed the darkness wherever he went. He became such a target of the darkness that he stood in “jeopardy every hour.” (1 Cor. 15:30) At Ephesus he tells us he fought with beasts, but the Lord delivered him from certain death to live another day.
Being delivered from every evil work does not mean always being delivered from the lion’s mouth, or the evil that others wish to do to us, but it does mean being always delivered from the evil that the enemy wants to do in and through us. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. The aim of our enemy goes beyond harming our body. He would inflict such wounds upon our soul that we curse those who hate and hurt us.
Our great need is to be kept by the power of God. Deliverance from the evil that men would do to us is not always possible; but deliverance from the evil we would do to them is always possible. The Lord can preserve us blameless in every evil day, even until His kingdom comes.