As a new teenaged believer, I was pleasantly surprised that one of evangelicalism’s leading apologists also wrote a book on love and marriage. I loved that book; it painted a picture of romance and marriage that I aspired to. Seventeen years later, to read the news report about Ravi Zacharias has been jarring and sobering. I don’t know how and when Ravi gave into sin, how he compromised along the way, how “little sins” turned into pathological lies and evil abuse. But I know the enemy always seeks to capitalize on moments of public scandal—and sometimes in ways that are less obvious than others.

For men, particularly those tasked with leading and shepherding a church, one of Satan’s strategies might be to further the divide between men and women in the church. As my colleague Melissa Kruger writes, “I’m concerned that certain well-intentioned guardrails have the potential to harm women. Pastors and church leaders, whatever actions you take to fight for purity, it’s important to remember: women are not the problem.”

As the church, we have much to reckon with. More needs to be addressed and said. But this is a good word in season: our sisters in Christ are not the problem. As men, we’re exhorted to treat “older women as mothers, [and] younger women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Tim. 5:2).

We’re family. Let’s live like it.