NOTES for Deu 20:1-20
Those who go to war to conquer the Promised Land and those who remain at home—out of faintheartedness or for more respectable reasons—nevertheless remain one people. The entire people are entitled to the spoils of war.
From what does this unity grow? At the level of the state, it can easily be explained by the way a state is organized—some fight while others plow—for the common good. But how can unity be preserved where the common good is not obvious—in a single church, in a single community? The work and ministries of those close to us often seem remote and unnecessary to us. A family or community is often not united by common interests or professional concerns—how can we be one in such a situation?
Though we perform different functions, we remain not separate parts of a machine but organs of a single body: the same blood flows in us and the same Spirit lives in us. God unites us not by means of a single ideology, a “faith,” but in the one Son, in His divine body.