I’ve been reading the book of Ephesians lately. Paul establishes a foundation of faith in the first few chapters, then finishes the remaining chapters by illustrating how to live by using the pattern of Jesus’ teaching. When I heard the word pattern in a commentary while I was studying, it brought me back to my youth.

When I was a teen, I took sewing lessons. The sewing instructor was a good friend of my mother and my best friend’s mom. In their remodeled basement, there was an entire classroom set up. There were six sewing machine stations, and two very large and wide tables used to cut the fabric from the patterns we chose. I remember spending hours learning every step of putting together a garment, but the first step was deciding what I wanted to make, a dress, shorts or blouse, then finding a pattern in order to create that piece of clothing. There were huge books in the fabric department dedicated to all sorts of patterns. We spent hours poring over them. Once we picked the one, then came purchasing fabric and going step by step, cutting the fabric by pinning the pattern pieces to it, connecting the pieces with the threaded machine and finally, the hand finishing work to complete an outfit.

Most importantly, the pattern came with instructions. I had to know how to lay out the fabric to make all the pieces fit, and I had to know in which direction to place all the pieces.

Which brings me back to Jesus. He is the ultimate pattern of how we should live our lives. In the Word, Jesus tells us about his relationship with the Father and how we can walk in the same way, how we should interact with each other, and how the Spirit guides us to carry out these actions.

The pattern instructions were important for not only cutting the fabric but then assembling the pieces. Without the instructions, I would have no clue where to start.

Jesus lived his life as a pattern, showing us the way to live an abundant life. We are his disciples, but we need Him to show us the way we should go. John 15 is an entire chapter of Jesus laying this out.

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹ They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

I love this beautiful picture Jesus paints.  There are many other examples in the Word, but this chapter always takes my breath away.

In Ephesians, and other books written by the apostle Paul, he had a really good handle on guiding new disciples to follow Christ or helping folks who had lost their way to remember where they started. He reminded the people he was writing to that they had once lived one way, but having now found Jesus, there was a better way.

In Ephesians 4: 1-6, Paul wrote, As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

And then he ended the chapter with, vs 32, Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

In the Bible, we learn how important it is to follow Jesus’ example and how we can do it. Just like I learned from the best when it came to sewing. I don’t think the instructor ever bought clothing off the rack, that’s how talented she was. Because she had a foundation and had learned to follow the instructions.

It’s a process, but one that is rewarding. Just like I never knew how the end product would turn out when I started sewing an outfit, I’m amazed daily by our loving and generous Father and by remembering how selfless it was for Jesus to come to earth and be our Savior and example. We can follow that pattern by reading the instructions, His Word, the Bible.

Tara Randel is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author. Family values, a bit of mystery and of course, love and romance, are her favorite themes, because she believes love is the greatest gift of all. Look for her Harlequin Heartwarming romance THE SURPRISE NEXT DOOR, available May 2025. For more information about her books, visit Tara at www.tararandel.com. Like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TaraRandelBooks.