It was indeed a serious issue, even though they were using it as a trap. The Israelites would say in those days, ‘We are an occupied nation. Do we not belong to God, or do we obey and belong to Caesar?’ Sometimes it is an issue today. There are some Christians troubled by this. As Christians in the church, who rules us? Caesar or Christ? If the government makes regulations in a pandemic for everyone to observe, to stop infection spreading – or so they thought at that time – should we ignore it because we are Christ's, or should we obey it? If we obey it, isn’t that obeying Caesar?
How great a liar Satan is! We see his strategy here. Working through these disciples of the Pharisees, he is working hard to flatter Christ into being bold enough to make a rash statement and say something which encourages rebellion against the Roman overlords. They seem to want him to go this way with his answer. But what is the purpose of this? Is there any principle behind it? No, it is simply to get him to go too far, to say something rash, and then they will pounce. Satan urges us on to commit all kinds of evil, but the moment we do, he accuses us and seeks to cast us down by our own consciences. He works it both ways.
They are very significant words actually. There has never been a teacher in the history of the world who was so genuine and so true as Christ. Even though these words are spoken in hypocrisy, and used to set a trap for him, they show what his enemies could not deny. They knew that he always acted with integrity, that he was never afraid to say what was true no matter what the consequences, and that he feared no one. This much had come across to them, but nevertheless they were trying to push him off balance with these words, and get him to say something reckless. Quite clearly, they did not regard him as divine, or they would know that he would see straight through their deception. We are used to political spin and all this type of thing; we are used to exaggeration. Even the very best of people and the very best of teachers cannot be said to be true, because they will make mistakes and they will say things in good faith, which turn out not to be correct. Only of Christ could this really be said: that he was exclusively true, totally sincere, utterly right. In all his utterances, there was nobody like Christ. So, although they do not mean it, there was never a truer word spoken.
Teaching the way of God doesn’t merely mean teaching about God or teaching the doctrines, it means specifically teaching the kind of conduct that we ought to have. Yes, that was exactly what he was doing: teaching about God, teaching the doctrines, and teaching how we ought to behave in a practical way in all the circumstances of life. That is often left out today, even from many Bible-believing pulpits. The truth about God and about salvation may be taught, but all too often these days the way in which we should live – separate from the world, ignoring the world’s entertainments and the world’s musical idiom – is left out.