The Social Imperative

Moreover, Aristotle teaches that man by his nature is brought to this social life and mutual sharing. For man is a more political animal than the bee or any other gregarious creature, and therefore by nature far more of a social animal than bees, ants, cranes, and such kind as feed and defend themselves in flocks. Since God himself endowed each being with a natural capacity to maintain itself and to resist whatever is contrary to it, so far as necessary to its welfare, and since dispersed men are not able to exercise this capacity, the instinct for living together and establishing civil society was given to them. Thus brought together and united, some men could aid others, many together could provide the necessities of life more easily than each alone, and all could live more safely from attack by wild beasts and enemies. It follows that no man is able to live well and happily to himself. Necessity therefore induces association; and the want of things necessary for life, which are acquired and communicated by the help and aid of one’s associates, conserves it. For this reason it is evident that the commonwealth, or civil society, exists by nature, and that man is by nature a civil animal who strives eagerly for association.

--Althusius, Politica §32,33.

Here is an argument from natural law (and God's revelation in the book of nature) that undergirds all social intercourse amongst men. Man is, by the necessary conditions of his creation, a social being. Man cannot be alone and be complete: thus moral obligation and love. By the same law, a Christian man cannot be alone and be complete: thus the church. Moving from natural theology to revealed theology, God has declared unto us that we are created in his image. Is it any surprise then that he has also revealed himself to be a community of persons in one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?