Luke 16:14,15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Pharisees, who were covetous Of a very worldly spirit; heard all these things Namely, concerning the true use of riches, and the impossibility of men's serving God and mammon at the same time; and they derided him As a visionary, who despised the riches, honours, and pleasures of life for no other reason but because he could not procure them. The original word, εξεμυκτηριζον, is very emphatical, signifying, they mocked him, by a scornful motion of the mouth and nose, as well as by what they spake to him. The word might properly be rendered, they sneered. “There was a gravity and dignity in our Lord's discourse which, insolent as they were, would not permit them to laugh out; but by some scornful air they hinted to each other their mutual contempt.” Doddridge. And he said, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men By shunning the company of sinners, and your care of external appearances, you make specious pretences to extraordinary sanctity before the world, and you seldom fail to acquire a great reputation for it. Or, the meaning may be, You think yourselves righteous, and persuade others to think you so. But God knoweth your hearts You cannot justify yourselves before him, who knows you to be so far from being righteous, that you are very wicked. For though you may have covered the foulness of your crimes with the painted cloak of hypocrisy, and by going about, thus adorned, have cheated those who look no further than the outside, into a high admiration of you, you cannot screen yourselves from the detection of God, whose eye penetrates through every covering, and who judges of things not by their appearances, but according to truth. For that which is highly esteemed among men, &c. In consequence of which it comes to pass that he often abhors both men and things that are held in the highest estimation.