NOTES for Deu 20:1-20

Those who go to war to conquer the Promised Land and those who remain at home, through cowardice or for more respectable reasons, do not thereby cease to be one people. The whole people has a right to the spoils of war. From what does this unity grow? At the level of a state it can easily be explained by the way the state is organized, some fight and others plow for the common good. But how can unity be preserved where the common good is not obvious, within one church or one community? The works and ministries of those close to us often seem distant and unnecessary. A family or community is often not united by common interests or professional subjects; how can we be one in this situation? While performing different functions, we remain not separate parts in a machine, but organs of a single organism: one blood flows in us, one Spirit lives in us. God unites us not by means of one ideology or "faith," but in one Son, in His divine body.