Luke 16:14  “…who were lovers of money…”
They took what He said to heart.  Not to change, they were just embarrassed to be caught.  As Luke was aware of this, it’s obvious the Pharisees’ behavior wasn’t a secret.  They may even have thought that no one else could see through their charade.  Deluding themselves.

15  “…who justify yourselves before men…”
The attempt to appear holy and righteous without true holiness or righteousness.  In fact, just the opposite.  They may have even believed it about themselves.  And Jesus warned them God knew of it.

15  “…highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God”
In this case.  All things esteemed by man aren’t abominations to God.  But their false, outward appearance of righteousness was an abomination.  They fed each other’s delusion, while truly knowing they were merely pretending.  In some cases, this put the people under burdens they weren’t supposed to bear and, at times, caused the people to loathe service to God or be weary of it.  Didn’t sit well with God which is completely understandable.  I never want to be guilty of the same thing.  So important to interpret and explain scripture to be sure we don’t lead others in a wrong direction.

16  “…the kingdom of God has been preached…”
Like it says in Hebrews, God spoke through the law and the prophets until His Son came.  Now the kingdom of God is being preached to all by Jesus.  And what He preaches isn’t different nor does it abolish the law and prophets, but fulfills them.  It sometimes appears different because people had not understood what God was trying to tell and teach them.  But if you take what Jesus taught and compare it to the law and prophets and interpret what was said then by what Jesus said, it makes perfect sense.  The fulfillment of what God had been saying all along.

18  “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.”
Seemed very out of place.  Commentaries thought so as well.  Explanation is that it shows in another way how the teachings of the Pharisees and their actual behavior had left the true teaching of God.  One commentary compared it to the ideas from the parable of the unjust steward.  Instead of confessing his sin and asking for mercy, he further cheated his employer in order to possibly set himself up in another position.  Instead of being faithful to their spouses, the people wanted to simply give a divorce to solve their problems, thinking out of sight, out of mind.  The teaching of the verse covers both sides and is specific in scope.  Whoever divorces his wife refers to the man while her who is divorced includes the woman.  The scope is specific to an instance of divorce.  If the marriage covenant has not been broken by infidelity, neither person is free to remarry.  Consummating a new marriage would be committing adultery.  But if one partner has committed infidelity, the marriage is broken and both would be free to remarry without committing adultery after the legality of divorce.  The point is not the divorce, but whether the marriage bond is intact.

I hope you enjoy reading and studying His word.  May it accomplish what He desires.  Please feel free to comment or post questions.  Thanks for reading!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.