²¹ for where your treasure is, there your heart [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers] will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body; so if your eye is clear [spiritually perceptive], your whole body will be full of light [benefiting from God’s precepts]. ²³ But if your eye is bad [spiritually blind], your whole body will be full of darkness [devoid of God’s precepts]. So if the [very] light inside you [your inner self, your heart, your conscience] is darkness, how great and terrible is that darkness!

³⁷ I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you plan to kill Me, because My word has no place [to grow] in you [and it makes no change in your heart]. ³⁸ I tell the things that I have seen at My Father’s side [in His very presence]; so you also do the things that you heard from your father.”

³⁹ They answered, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are [truly] Abraham’s children, then do the works of Abraham and follow his example. ⁴⁰ But as it is, you want to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This is not the way Abraham acted. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your [own] father.” They said to Him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one [spiritual] Father: God.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father [but He is not], you would love and recognize Me, for I came from God [out of His very presence] and have arrived here. For I have not even come on My own initiative [as self-appointed], but He [is the One who] sent Me. ⁴³ Why do you misunderstand what I am saying? It is because [your spiritual ears are deaf and] you are unable to hear [the truth of] My word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. ⁴⁵ But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me [and continue in your unbelief]. ⁴⁶ Which one of you [has proof and] convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is of God and belongs to Him hears [the truth of] God’s words; for this reason you do not hear them: because you are not of God and you are not in fellowship with Him.”

The Christian’s Walk

¹⁷ So this I say, and solemnly affirm together with the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the [unbelieving] Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds [and in the foolishness and emptiness of their souls], ¹⁸ for their [moral] understanding is darkened and their reasoning is clouded; [they are] alienated and self-banished from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the [willful] ignorance and spiritual blindness that is [deep-seated] within them, because of the hardness and insensitivity of their heart. ¹⁹ And they, [the ungodly in their spiritual apathy], having become callous and unfeeling, have given themselves over [as prey] to unbridled sensuality, eagerly craving the practice of every kind of impurity [that their desires may demand]. ²⁰ But you did not learn Christ in this way! ²¹ If in fact you have [really] heard Him and have been taught by Him, just as truth is in Jesus [revealed in His life and personified in Him], ²² that, regarding your previous way of life, you put off your old self [completely discard your former nature], which is being corrupted through deceitful desires, ²³ and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh, untarnished mental and spiritual attitude], ²⁴ and put on the new self [the regenerated and renewed nature], created in God’s image, [godlike] in the righteousness and holiness of the truth [living in a way that expresses to God your gratitude for your salvation].