Luke 16:14-15

Vers. 14 and 15. “ The Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things; and they derided Him. 15. And He said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. ”

The last words of Jesus on the impossibility of combining the service of God and mammon, fell full on the heads of the Pharisees, those pretended servants of Jehovah, who nevertheless in their lives showed themselves such zealous worshippers of riches (Matthew 6, transition between Luke 16:18-19). Hence their sneers (ἐκμυκτηρίζειν). The poverty of Jesus Himself was perhaps the theme of their derision: “It is easy to speak of money with such disdain...when one is destitute as thou art.” In His answer (Luke 16:15), Jesus gives them to understand that the judgment of God is regulated by another standard than that of the men who are at their side. It is at the heart that God looks; and the reign of a single passion, such as that avarice which devours them, suffices to render odious in His eyes that whole righteousness of outward observances which gains for them the favour of the world. The phrase: Ye are they which justify yourselves, signifies, “your business is to pass yourselves off as righteous.” The ὅτι, for, is explained by the idea of condemnation, which here attaches to that of knowledge: “God knows you [and rejects you], for...” ᾿Εν ἀνθρώποις, on the part of men, may mean: among men, or in the judgment of men. In connection with the idea of being highly esteemed, those two ideas are combined. Jesus means: “What men extol and glorify, consequently the ambitious, who, like you, by one means or another push themselves into the front rank, become an object of abomination to God.” For all glorification of man rests on falsehood. God alone is great and deserving to be praised.

What had chiefly irritated the Pharisees in the preceding was the spiritual sense in which Jesus understood the law, unveiling under their airs of sanctity the stain of shameful avarice which defiled them. This idea affords the point of connection for what follows (Luke 16:16-18).