A surprising insight from Luke chapter 18 is that God doesn’t seem to be all that interested in people’s righteousness. You can pray regularly, lead a morally upright lifestyle, give to the poor, obey the ten commandments, be well-respected in your community, and do great and mighty deeds – but this still doesn’t mean that God will be happy with you. In fact, God will be happier with a despicable sinner who is repentant than he will be with the morally upright person.
The lesson seems to be that attitude is more important than righteousness. Humility is more important than good deeds. Spiritual pride is one of the biggest barriers that you can set up between yourself and God. A lifetime spent obeying all of God’s laws followed by a little bit of spiritual pride is far worse on God’s scale than a lifetime spent flagrantly disobeying all of God’s laws followed by genuine repentance and humility.
What is the application for today? The implication is that people inside the church, people who have been Christians for a long time and who are very careful in following a strict moral code, are in considerable danger of incurring God’s displeasure. Looking down on people who live sinful lifestyles is a greater sin than all of the sins committed by those people who are living those sinful lifestyles.