Luke 16:14

Covetous] RV 'lovers of money'; see on Mark 12:40.

15, 16. See on Matthew 11:12; Matthew 11:13. The connexion (if such is to be sought) is this: Before Christ began to preach, it was comparatively easy for the Pharisees to justify themselves before men, but now that the deeper morality of the Gospel is widely accepted, men are beginning to find out the deficiencies of the Pharisees.

17, 18. See on Matthew 5:18. Here the sense is: The Pharisees, however, object to be tried by the standard of the Gospel, and demand to be tried by the standard of the Law. But even according to this (which is still in force in its spiritual sense), they are found to be deficient, for, while observing it in trivial matters, they break it in matters of weight, e.g. (Luke 16:18), whereas the Law forbids divorce except for adultery, the Pharisees, or most of them, allow it for every cause: see on Matthew 5:32.