diff --git a/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/util/AbstractExpressionEvaluator.java b/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/util/AbstractExpressionEvaluator.java
index 3c13569d90..f0ac68f405 100644
--- a/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/util/AbstractExpressionEvaluator.java
+++ b/spring-integration-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/util/AbstractExpressionEvaluator.java
@@ -65,8 +65,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractExpressionEvaluator implements BeanFactoryAware {
 		}
 	}
 
-	// TODO: should we make this protected (would require changes to tests only)
-	public StandardEvaluationContext getEvaluationContext() {
+	protected StandardEvaluationContext getEvaluationContext() {
 		return this.evaluationContext;
 	}
 
diff --git a/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/handler/ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests.java b/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/handler/ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests.java
index 38f6d893fc..2cc5c5aa2b 100644
--- a/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/handler/ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests.java
+++ b/spring-integration-core/src/test/java/org/springframework/integration/handler/ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests.java
@@ -31,12 +31,14 @@ import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.RootBeanDefinition;
 import org.springframework.context.support.GenericApplicationContext;
 import org.springframework.context.support.StaticApplicationContext;
 import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;
+import org.springframework.expression.EvaluationContext;
 import org.springframework.expression.EvaluationException;
 import org.springframework.expression.Expression;
 import org.springframework.expression.ExpressionParser;
 import org.springframework.expression.spel.SpelParserConfiguration;
 import org.springframework.expression.spel.standard.SpelExpressionParser;
 import org.springframework.integration.message.GenericMessage;
+import org.springframework.integration.test.util.TestUtils;
 
 /**
  * @author Dave Syer
@@ -71,7 +73,8 @@ public class ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests {
 		}
 		Expression expression = expressionParser.parseExpression("#target.stringify(payload)");
 		ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessor processor = new ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessor(expression);
-		processor.getEvaluationContext().setVariable("target", new TestTarget());
+		EvaluationContext evaluationContext = TestUtils.getPropertyValue(processor, "evaluationContext", EvaluationContext.class);
+		evaluationContext.setVariable("target", new TestTarget());
 		assertEquals("2", processor.processMessage(new GenericMessage<String>("2")));
 	}
 
@@ -84,7 +87,8 @@ public class ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests {
 		}
 		Expression expression = expressionParser.parseExpression("#target.ping(payload)");
 		ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessor processor = new ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessor(expression);
-		processor.getEvaluationContext().setVariable("target", new TestTarget());
+		EvaluationContext evaluationContext = TestUtils.getPropertyValue(processor, "evaluationContext", EvaluationContext.class);
+		evaluationContext.setVariable("target", new TestTarget());
 		assertEquals(null, processor.processMessage(new GenericMessage<String>("2")));
 	}
 
@@ -100,7 +104,8 @@ public class ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessorTests {
 		Expression expression = expressionParser.parseExpression("#target.find(payload)");
 		ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessor processor = new ExpressionEvaluatingMessageProcessor(expression);
 		processor.setBeanFactory(new GenericApplicationContext().getBeanFactory());
-		processor.getEvaluationContext().setVariable("target", new TestTarget());
+		EvaluationContext evaluationContext = TestUtils.getPropertyValue(processor, "evaluationContext", EvaluationContext.class);
+		evaluationContext.setVariable("target", new TestTarget());
 		String result = (String) processor.processMessage(new GenericMessage<String>("classpath:*.properties"));
 		assertTrue("Wrong result: "+result, result.contains("log4j.properties"));
 	}