We learn in Genesis 2:16 that "it is not good for the man to be alone."

For all the splendor that Adam enjoyed as one created in the very image of his God and Father, he was still not complete. "Not good" in Biblical parlance until God completed him by making, "the right kind of helper" for him. By making woman.

But nor is it good for the woman to be alone. Women have proved that they can compete with men in most areas of life. That they can make their own way in the world which for most of history was difficult if not impossible, due to the configuration of labor and economics. A condition which men too often exploited.

But it is still not good for the woman to be alone. Women are still the weaker sex physically speaking, in a culture where self-restraint has gone missing. This makes women vulnerable. A girl without a father, or a woman without a husband, finds herself on a very unlevel playing field from which feminist doctrine cannot protect her.

More troubling is the woman who wants children without the benefit of a committed husband for herself, and a devoted father for them. If flies in the face of reason and nature, to say nothing of the sexual immorality involved.

Under the circumstances the church can be a great blessing to a world that has lost its way. Especially when its women keep themselves pure, and lead their men into the church. And when the church herself remains steadfast and faithful in teaching the divine Word.

Christian men for their part must love their wives in the same way that Christ loved the church, and gave his life for her. (Ephesians 5:25) They must hold women in general, and their wives in particular, in the highest esteem. For without them, O Man, you are alone! You are incomplete. But with them you complete. And together you are an image of the perfect love that exists between Christ and his baptismally-cleansed Bride the church. And there's nothing better than that.