Is there a double standard between the sexes? Of course there is, as there should be. But it’s not in what the world means by ‘double-standard’.

What the world means is that it’s more acceptable for one sex to sin than the other (as if that’s advantageous); and that’s ‘not fair’. The double-standard that is good, which corresponds to the complementarity of human nature, is not about how we sin, but about how we love. Read Ephesians 5:21-35. The head of the body is held to one standard as leader and protector while the heart is held to another as nurturer and life-giver. He cherishes her as his own flesh while she counters with respectful submission, as a healthy body following its head. Each complements the other with the giving and receiving of masculine and feminine aspects of love; both being necessary for the life of the body – whether that body be a human body, a marriage, a family, or a society.

No one has a right to sin, but everyone has an obligation to love. And this dynamic of love is active and passive; gift and reception, masculine and feminine, unitive and procreative. It is naturally dualistic and complementary, reflecting the eternal relation of the Father and the Son, and is naturally equal but different.