اتْلُ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ
Recite what has been revealed to you of the Book,
Allah commands His Messenger and the believers to recite the Qur'an, which means both reciting it and conveying it to people.
وَأَقِمِ الصَّلَأةَ إِنَّ الصَّلَأةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاء وَالْمُنكَرِ وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ
and perform the Salah. Verily, the Salah prevents from Al-Fahsha' and Al-Munkar and the remembrance of Allah is greater indeed.
Prayer includes two things;
the first of which is giving up immoral behavior and evil deeds, i.e., praying regularly enables a person to give up these things.
Imam Ahmad recorded that Abu Hurayrah said;
"A man came to the Prophet and said, `So-and-so prays at night, but when morning comes, he steals.'
The Prophet said;
إِنَّهُ سَيَنْهَاهُ مَا تَقُول
What you are saying (i.e., the Salah) will stop him from doing that."
Prayer also includes the remembering of Allah, which is the higher objective, Allah says;
وَلَذِكْرُ اللَّهِ أَكْبَرُ
(and the remembrance of Allah is greater indeed), more important than the former.
وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ
And Allah knows what you do.
means, He knows all that you do and say.
Abu Al-`Aliyah commented on the Ayah;
إِنَّ الصَّلَةَ تَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاء وَالْمُنكَرِ
(Verily, the Salah prevents from immoral sins and evil wicked deeds),
"Prayer has three attributes, and any prayer that contains none of these attributes is not truly prayer;
Being done purely and sincerely for Allah alone (Ikhlas),
fear of Allah, and remembrance of Allah. Ikhlas makes a person do good deeds, fear prevents him from doing evil deeds,
and the remembrance of Allah is the Qur'an which contains commands and prohibitions."
Ibn Awn Al-Ansari said;
"When you are praying, you are doing good, it is keeping you away from immoral sins and evil wicked deeds and what you are doing is part of the remembrance of Allah which is greater.