God made man a social being. The only time when God looked upon His creative work in those six days and declared that “it was not good” was when man was alone. He then made woman and put the two together to multiply and fill the earth. God’s creation of male and female, as creatures of communion, was in the likeness of God Himself.

God Himself is a social Being. Long before the world ever was, the three Persons of the Trinity enjoyed fellowship One with Another. The Father loved the Son, the Son sang the praises of the Father, and the Spirit enjoyed the communion of the other two. The three persons of the Godhead were in intimate, joyful, communion with each Other. While we see clear evidences of this Trinitarian interaction in redemptive history (e.g. John 5:20; Hebrews 2:12; John 16:13-14), this communion was, and always will be eternally true.

Mankind, being made in the likeness of God, is a social creature. It is against God’s creative purposes and against His “image in man” for man to seclude himself as a hermit away from others. Yet in the post-modern world in which we live today, man often thinks of himself, in Soren Kierkegaard’s words, as “The Individual.” While we may not live in monasteries away from civilization, we have all too much individualism flowing through our veins. Individualism is an old, old, sin. It is really about self-autonomy and independence from all others – including God. This was the first sin in the garden. Man desired to be like God (Genesis 3:5) and acted in an autonomous fashion not considering the divine restraints that God had put on the man. The very root of man’s sinful nature is self-autonomy, and since the falls this is the spirit that prevails. This spirit stands against God’s covenantal framework and yields a degenerate culture (cf. Babel).

I will reiterate Henry Van Til from yesterday’s post, “Culture is a social enterprise; it is not achieved in isolation, but through the interaction and cooperation of men in communion.” For Christian culture to be productive with the gospel in advancing the kingdom, it must be founded on God’s principles of the covenant. Covenantal living is contrary to “The Individual.” Covenantal living is social. It is cultural. It is godly (like God). God is a covenant God, and covenantalism and individualism are antithetical ideas.