Luke 15:7

Which need no repentance] i.e. which think they need no repentance, but really need it more than the publicans and sinners whom they despise. The rabbis divided the just or righteous into two classes, (1) the 'perfectly just,' or 'men of works,' who had never in all their lives committed a single sin, and (2) the 'penitents,' who, having once been wicked, had repented. The Pharisees considered themselves to belong to the former class, as also, perhaps, did the young ruler who said 'All these have I kept from my youth' (Mark 10:20). How external the Pharisaic standard of righteousness was, may be gathered from the story of the 'holy man,' who 'never committed one trespass all the days of his life, except this one misfortune which befell him, that one day he put on his head-phylactery before his arm-phylactery.' For 'phylactery,' see on Matthew 23:6.