A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

te the people of the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not 69 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever" (1 John 2:15-17).4 The Kingdom of God within the believer was important for the Mennonite Brethren. Jesus' answer to the Pharisaic in- quiry concerning the kingdom was pivotal; "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21). Jesus had chosen them "out of the world" 0°hn 15:19) to become "the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). The indwelling of Christ in the believer, the new nature result- ing from the new birth, produced a radical standard of behav- ior that was to be lived out in relationships with others. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) spelled out the extent of this new behavior: limitless love (even for persecutors), forgive- ness, self-surrender These values stood in stark, paradoxical contrast to the uniegenerate mindset of "the world." To be "not of this world" meant to integrate the gospel of Jesus Christ with daily life and ethics fully and radically. True faith in Jesus Christ was not mere verbal profession of "accepting Jesus into my heart." Transformed behavior and re- lationships measured by the teachings and life of Jesus were foundational to being "in the world but not of the world."5 To be the people of God meant a distinct lifestyle with different priorities, values and conduct.6 The second aspect in the theology of two worlds was the ongoing conflict between the Kingdom of God and the king- dom of this world-the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Passages like 1 John 5:19, 2 Timothy 3:13 and 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 reflected early Mennonite Brethren un- derstanding of a wicked world in which evil people sought to seduce and deceive.7 The Schleitheim Confession of the early Anabaptists ex- 70 IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD pressed well the Mennonite Brethren theology of two worlds: We have been united concerning the separation that shall take place from the evil and the wickedness which the devil has planted in the world, simply in this: that we have no fellowship with them, and do no