(Speech by Rev. Joshua Tomalin in the Reconquista Conference on Nov. 1st, 2025 in Wittenberg, Germany)
When I came to choosing what to speak on today, I initially struggled. There are so many good, helpful, edifying topics that I could address. The importance of scripture, its place in our churches as inspired and infallible, and the errors our churches have made in the process of moving away from this. I could speak on our conviction that salvation is through Christ, and Christ alone. I could talk about being in cultures that encourage us to accept the secular, to accept that we can get truth from many sources. It is important that we be strengthened and encouraged in our convictions, and I could talk for the next twenty minutes on them, and I’m sure everyone here would walk away very happy. But as I’ve been reflecting on what it means to contend well in a church that seems intent at times from walking away from its biblical roots, when I’ve reflected on ministry in my own contexts, when I’ve reflected on the privilege I’ve had in getting to know many of you – It’s become clear that our convictions, as important as they are – are not enough.
So today I want to talk to you about something that must go along with our convictions – and that is our character. Our convictions are what we believe, what we know to be true – and our character is how we live out that truth. And yet so often we focus on our convictions so much that we neglect the character that must go alongside them. It would be so easy for me to stay in the easy lane, pretend all the problems are outside, out there – without ever addressing that before we seek a reformation out there in our churches, we first need one in here, in our hearts. So what is the character that we are called to?
Form 2 Peter
“make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”
You see how love takes the highest priority? In 1 Corinthians we hear love explained as this
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
And this all sounds really nice, and easy until we remember Jesus’ words on the sermon on the mount – “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” We are people called to love as our highest mark of character. And love not just for those we find easy to love, but to all, even to our enemies. Is that what we see – when we engage with others, when we contend for the faith, for gospel truth within our churches, online in whatever space we’re in we don’t get released from this.
We need to be a movement whose defining mark is love, abounding love, extravagant love, even and especially for those we might challenge and disagree with. Because love is not the same as simply being nice, and being friendly, we are still called to contend and struggle and challenge. We will and must disagree with those in our churches who want to sideline scripture, who want to walk away from the historic faith. But we do so in love. Imagine those who you talk to walking away from a discussion you had thinking “That was utterly bizarre – they disagreed with me on so much, and yet I know that they loved me.”
How much do we fall short of that, in our words, in our actions? Let me be clear, this is not a tactic, that is not pragmatic diplomacy or strategy, it is a plea that we remember that first God needs to work in our hearts. This love is not a mask we put on. It is not smiling on the outside, whilst inside we harbour all sorts of malice, and anger. No! This is a love that must start from our hearts. So the next time you talk about your church, your leaders, ask yourself “Do I love them?”, is what I am saying and what I am doing out of genuine love, that does not dishonour, that is not easily angered, that does not keep record of wrongs, that protects, trusts, and perseveres. Is this my love for them? Because I’ll be honest with you all – that for me – all too often it isn’t. And that’s to my shame, because this isn’t optional. Because when Paul talks of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. They’re not optional.
Before I am a minister, before I am someone who wants to see our churches turned back to Christ, I am first and foremost a Christian. That means God has sent his Spirit to live in me and that he has changed my dead heart to life, and he is working to sanctify me to change me, to grow me into the sort of person who can actually enjoy being in his presence. And the same is true for all of us here. If we are to be people bearing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, it means in every aspect of our lives, including in how we contend for our churches. Now there’s a chance you’re sitting there thinking – well, hang on. This sounds all very nice, but what about Jesus? He didn’t exactly play it all that softly and gently when it came to the Pharisees. When he called them a nest of vipers and whitewashed tombs – if he can use that sort of language, so can I! He went about the temple with a whip to clear the desecration that was going on there, doesn’t seem all that gentle. To which I would give a word a caution – Jesus was able to look into the hearts of those he was speaking with, he knew for certain what he was talking about when he addressed his opponents sharply. You don’t, I don’t. Yes there will be times when strong words and strong actions are needed. Yes, there is the possibility of not going far enough, not saying enough. Not being clear enough for the sake of the gospel and obscuring our message out of a desire to be nice. Nowhere are we simply called to be nice, you may need to be challenging, but always lovingly, always gently, always with self-control. These aren’t optional, this is how God has told us we are to be.
We see this worked out practically in 2 Timothy 2 – when Paul is instructing Timothy in dealing with false teachers, in deal with those who are distorting the gospel.
“The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape
from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”
So first, we engage in this Spirit-filled way out of who we are, but also for those we deal with. When we disagree with others, challenge them, oppose them – our hope and our goal is not to come away feeling like we owned our opponents in debate, and humiliated them. To make ourselves feel good and for them to feel ashamed. Our hope is that God will grant them repentance leading to knowledge of the truth.
Will that change how you engage with others, whether online or in your church? I hope it will. And I know there are going to be people sitting here thinking “I’ve got this – I’m already doing this, I’m sorted!” If our positions were reversed, that might well be me! But whoever you are and however sorted you think you have this, know that we are all a work in progress, we seek after Christlikeness, but we will never perfectly attain it this side of eternity. Even if this is a reminder not a new teaching, take it to heart as if it were the first time you heard it. Whether it be on X, on Youtube, on Discord – or in your church, in your synods.
Think about what this radical loving engagement looks like for you. And this is radical – to have character that matches our convictions. Because everything else in our culture actively rewards either compromising our convictions in the name of unity – or abandoning our character in the quest to score points, to win the game. You want to get a big platform online, just disagree with people on everything all the time, and be as hostile, as provocative as you can be. That’s what success looks like in our world. Not so with you. Hold to your convictions—and we have heard much this weekend that is good and right and helpful to aid us in doing that. But hold to your character, know that it is God shaping you and working through you, that gentleness is not weakness. That humility is not backing down.
Most of us are only starting our walks of faith, and I hope many people here including myself have many more decades of wisdom to learn and grow. We won’t get everything right the first time, we’re going to have to learn to apologise, to own our faults, and seek repentance. But have hope – for in this room might be the future leaders of our churches, might be those who bring the gospel back to its place of honour. Have hope, because yes the bar of our character is high, but we have a God who is faithful, who has bought us through Christ, and has promised to sanctify us. Have hope my friends – for we serve an amazing God.
Amen
