[Theophilus]

Matthew 17
24 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?
25 He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?
26 Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
27 Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

[Yosemitest]

Let's read Matthew 22:14-22.

For many are called, but few are chosen.
Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.
And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying,
Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth,
neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
Tell us therefore,
What thinkest thou?
Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said,
Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
Shew me the tribute money.
And they brought unto him a penny.
And he saith unto them,
Whose is this image and superscription?
They say unto him,
Caesar's.
Then saith he unto them,
Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's;
and unto God the things that are God's.
When they had heard these words,
they marvelled, and left him,
and went their way.

Martin G. Selbrede wrote an article in The Covenant News on January 25, 2009 titled Taxation, Liberty, and the Bible.
In it, he had a paragraph called “Rendering unto Caesar” that, I believe, covers this Bible quote very well.

“Rendering unto Caesar”

The tribute money episode in Matt. 22:17-21 is not about taxes but about sovereignty.
God’s Law forbids the use of graven images.
In the days of Jesus, Jewish shekels were free of idolatrous images, but the Roman denarii were not.
Jesus had to call for someone to produce a denarius
because neither He nor His disciples used them.
That the Jews used forbidden coins was evidence that theirs was a nation under God’s judgment, by way of Roman subjugation.
The Jews’ inquiry about the denarius earned them Christ’s rebuke of being “hypocrites” (v. 18).
Christ’s command was FIRST to the Jews to
“give back to Caesar that which is his.”
It was an indictment of Jewish apostasy that they used such coins at all.
SECOND, Christ’s command was to Caesar
to “render unto God” what was God’s due,
for Caesar was not exempt from God’s demands.
God and Caesar are not two equal authorities independently ruling different spheres with absolute power:
rather, Caesar and all civil rulers are subordinated to Christ by God’s explicit command (Psalm 2:10-12).
In Romans 13, Paul calls civil magistrates “servants of God” answerable to Him as such.
Rome considered Paul’s command to pray for the king (1 Tim. 2:1-2) as blasphemous
because Paul was expected to pray to the emperor, not for the emperor.
Rome claimed sovereignty, which belongs only to God.