YouVersion

The apostles, when discussing morality and behaviour, lay a foundation of:

1. What Christ has done FOR you
2. What Christ has done IN you.

And THEN they issue the call to APPLY morals: "The moral vision for the Christian life".

1. Moral Life
2. Godliness/ Religion
3. Love

The three above are like a three-legged stool - all must be present in The Moral Vision.

A Moral Life without Love, for example, see 1 Cor 13. Love and Religion with Morals, see the Antinomeans. Love and Morality without devotion to God is the behaviour of moral pagans.

To break down the categories then, firstly: religion.
Religion and morality go hand-in-hand - an erosion of moral excellence in modern day churches has significant similarities to the church Peter was addressing (as in the ancient world there was no connection between morality and religion, although each existed separately).

At the end of v.6 'in your perseverance" - the word used in the Greek 'usebia', for which the Latin is 'pioutas' - this is where we get the English word 'pious'.

Piety has pejorative connotations, and has been replaced in modern language with the term 'spiritual'. Unfortunately, this has just as much application to hippy communes and Hollywood starlets!

The original, un-poisoned meaning of 'pious' meant an outlook on life of one who lives moment by moment, conscious at all times that they are in the presence of God, and therefore calculating his conduct accordingly.

Of course, we KNOW that God is omni-present, but do we always act as such? Note the change in behaviour in children when an adult enters the vicinity, or even church-goers altering their behaviour dependent upon who they are around.

Not so with the truly pious, or Godly. They live with this in the forefront of their minds:
"Every opportunity I live is an opportunity to honour and please God."
It is their AMBITION. It should be OUR ambition to be pleasing to God - 2 Corinthians 5:9.

What is YOUR controlling ambition?

We can and should do ALL things to the Glory of God - our work should serve Christ (Col 3), our minds should dwell only on LOVELY things. Even eating and drinking, God is observing - Romans 12:1 - ALL of life is a worship service.

Who or what are you worshipping right now?

Piety, of course, needs nourishment. God knows we're not perfect. But how do we get this nourishment?
Through prayer, commitment to the Church, commitment to the Word and meditating upon it. Calvin said: "The Christian life is a matter of thinking God's thoughts."

So our prayer should be 'to cultivate an awareness of the presence of God and to live so as to please God'.

And our motive for all of this? LOVE. John 3:16.
Gratitude, sheer THANKFUL JOY at what God has done for us in Christ. Thanks and all praise be to Him.