1. Brothers and sisters, the most distinguishing mark of Christians is to be loved. The most distinguishing mark of a church of Jesus Christ is to be loved. In and through everything else and above everything else, we are to love one another. Notice how the apostle John writes this in 1 John 4:1–21:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. - In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God has so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7–11)
2. Because we have been loved, we are to live in love. Because we have been dealt with, not as we deserve, but in grace and mercy born of God's great love for us, we are to treat each other with grace and mercy born of love. John makes the need for that love even clearer in the end of that chapter:
If anyone says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him; whoever loves God must also love his brother.
3. If you are practicing the type of love that seeks the wellbeing of others, even at great personal cost, then you will not be satisfied to live with unreconciled relationships in the body of Christ. So I want to ask you, Are you at odds with anyone in this church?” If there is a relationship that has been broken with a brother or sister, in the body of Christ, then rather than letting it stew, determine to work it out. Think about God's great love for you, and remember that he has called you to love one another. Ask yourself if you are truly loving the way that you have been loved; and if not, then repent and go and seek reconciliation, whether you have been offended or whether you are the one who has done the offense. Take steps today to make things right. Love is one of the key ingredients in reconciliation, it will not happen without love. And just as the gospel reveals God's great love to us, it empowers us to love one another.
9 yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus