Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on
every hand were crying abuses--extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty.
Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses,
nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority
or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof
from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of
men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external
measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must
regenerate the heart.
Again and again Christ had been asked to decide legal and political
questions. But He refused to interfere in temporal matters. Christ stood in our
world as the Head of the great spiritual kingdom that He came to our world
to establish--the kingdom of righteousness. His teaching made plain the
ennobling, sanctifying principles that govern this kingdom. He showed that
justice and mercy and love are the controlling powers in Jehovah's kingdom.
The spies came to Him, and with apparent sincerity, as though desiring
to know their duty, said, "Master, we know that Thou sayest and teachest
rightly, neither acceptest Thou the person of any, but teachest the way of
God truly: is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?"
Christ's reply was no evasion, but a candid answer to the question.
Holding in His hand the Roman coin, upon which were stamped the name
and image of Caesar, He declared that since they were living under the
protection of the Roman power, they should render to that power the support
it claimed, so long as this did not conflict with a higher duty.
When the Pharisees heard Christ's answer, "they marveled, and left Him,
and went their way." He had rebuked their hypocrisy and presumption, and
in doing this He had stated a great principle, a principle that clearly defines
the limits of man's duty to the civil government and his duty to God.
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