Watch the video above and talk about it with a group or mentor. Learn more.
Complementarity is a big label we use for God’s full design for marriage, and several excellent books help to explain what it all means.
But another way to witness God’s design for marriage is to pull up a chair and learn from couples who are seeking to honor God by living out their complementarian convictions — a husband leading his wife so she will flourish, and a wife coming alongside her husband to help him.
Such a marriage runs contrary to our selfish desires and requires nothing short of the power of the gospel, as you will hear in this 4-minute clip with Matt and Lauren Chandler, as they open up their lives to explain the particular hurdles they have faced over the years in learning to express God’s beautiful design for their own marriage.
Ephesians 5:21-28And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- Define “complementarianism” in your own words. Do you view marriage like this? Explain.
- Why do you think some people are offended by this idea today? What do you think Jesus would say to it?
- Read Ephesians 5:21-28. Make a list of the things Christ did for the church. How does this translate for husbands (and wives)?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
