This book is a response to the request for more teaching on the historic peace church witness. It was commissioned in 1981 by the Board of Christian Literature of the General Conference of Mennonite Brethren (MB) Churches. The pressing concern at the time was the shape of the Mennonite peace witness in a post-Vietnam and post-draft era in the United States. At the 1980 church convention of American MBs in Minneapolis, there were some who wondered if it was time to relax the MB commitment to the historic Mennonite peace witness. While the resolution to affirm the MB Confession of Faith's articulation of the peace position was overwhelmingly affirmed at that convention, the resolution included a request for clearer and more systematic teaching on peace. The book argues that Jesus' peace teaching is central to the gospel and to the mission of the church.