God expects His people to be wholly devoted to Him. This is why Jesus said, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13).
Sadly, many religious people who claim to serve God have turned money into an idol. They have devoted themselves to the pursuit of wealth to the neglect of spiritual things. The Pharisees were like this. They were “lovers of money,” so they “were scoffing” at Jesus’ teaching (Luke 16:14).
Jesus responded, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). In other words, they were presenting themselves in such a way that the people around them perceived them to be religious, zealous, and righteous. Yet God was able to see their hearts. He knew what others did not know about them. They could not fool God with any outward show of piety. If they wanted to be right before God, they needed to humbly submit to His will. The same is true for us today.
So remember that we cannot justify ourselves before God. We might act in such a way that others esteem us highly. Yet we need to submit to God and serve Him from the heart if we want to stand justified before Him.