Although we live in an age that is deeply skeptical of knowledge or anyone claiming to speak the "truth," the Bible is clear that knowing the truth about what God has done for us is essential to us living the way he intends. Right understanding leads to right living, or at least it should.
Nowhere is this connection between knowledge and behavior, between thinking and doing, clearer than in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. In chapters 1-3, Paul both teaches and reminds his community about all that God has done for them in Christ, how he has rescued them from their old, empty way of living and set them on a new path of forgiveness, redemption, and hope for the life to come. The ideas in these chapters are to form the base of their knowledge, their theology, that should propel them into "living a life worthy of the calling they have received." (Ephesians 4:1)
Knowing and believing the correct things about God and all he has done for us helps us to make our way through this world that often creates uncertainty and anxiety in us. And one of the best ways to reorient our minds to reality is to simply say back to God the amazing things he has done for us -- worship.
Paul opens his letter to the Ephesians with a seemingly endless, tapeworm-style sentence that piles up words, phrases, and clauses in a beautiful attempt to describe all that God has done for us in Christ. It's a sentence that covers their (and our) past, present, and future, all included in the cosmic sweep of God's mercy and love.
