John Calvin Commentary Matthew 22:18

"But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why make ye trial of me, ye hypocrites?" — Matthew 22:18 (ASV)

Knowing their malice. They had opened the conversation in such a manner that they did not appear to differ at all from excellent scholars. How then did Christ have this knowledge, if not because His Spirit was a discerner of hearts?

It was not by human conjecture that He perceived their cunning, but because He was God He penetrated into their hearts, and therefore they gained nothing by attempting the concealment of flattery and of pretended righteousness. Accordingly, before giving a reply, He exhibited a proof of His Divinity by exposing their concealed malice.

Now, since wicked men every day employ snares of the same kind while their inward malice is concealed from us, we ought to pray to Christ to bestow on us the spirit of discernment, and to grant us as a free gift that which He possessed by nature and His own right. How much we need this prudence, is evident from the fact that if we do not guard against the snares of the wicked, we will constantly expose the doctrine of God to their calumnies.