Romans 12-16. Live As Saints Should Live

1. In Romans 13:11 the thing that is “nearer” is our salvation, through ministering to our fellow men. In order to continue working out our salvation we must speak up and share the gospel, and not be afraid to be a support to our fellow saints and beings, so that the blood of this generation will not be required of us.
2. The things we need to do to achieve salvation according to Paul include: offering our whole bodies unto God as a sacrifice, or an offering, becoming spiritually reborn, and loving others with real love, eschewing evil and valuing good. We must also have charity, avoid pride and vanity, do not give in to wicked desires, have no other God but one, use our given powers for the good of all, avoid all debt save the love of our fellow being, and lastly keep all the commandments and show love to our neighbor.
3. Paul cautioned that how we judge is easily prone to error, and especially when judging other men, we should avoid it, for we are all God’s children, and only God can really judge, for everything we judge is already judged of God. Why risk being terribly wrong? Oftentimes, we have different insights and opinions that lead to disagreements and even estrangement. When this happens we need to remember that most importantly, at the end of the day, only God’s opinions and views will matter. Whatever we make of it, it has no value unless it shares its view with God. In Doctrine and Covenants 38 it reads that we should esteem our brothers as equals with us, and that we should all be one. This seems to preclude judging each other, except as we would judge ourselves.
4. In the chapters of Romans 14 and 15 it shows that Paul is discussing charity to the saints at Jerusalem, and throughout this writing he often referred to the church members as saints, and that we ought to succor one another as good saints should. A saint is also a member of Zion, meaning one in heart, and the saints should also be one in heart.