Here, then, is this basic fundamental teaching — the man is to be the head of the wife, and he is to be the head of the family. God made him that way, endowed him with the faculties and powers and propensities that enable him to fulfill this; and so made woman that she should be the “complement” of man. Now the word “complement” carries in itself the notion of submission; her main function is to make up a deficiency in the man. That is why these two become “one flesh”; the woman is the complement of the man. But the emphasis, therefore, is this, that man is responsible not only for himself, but for his wife, and for his family in all ultimate matters. The wife is to help him, to support him, to aid him, and to do everything she can in order to enable him to function as the lord of creation, into which position God has placed him. She is brought into being in order to help man to perform that great and wonderful and glorious task. That is the basic teaching with regard to the relationship of husbands and wives as laid down in the very order of creation, the fundamental rule with regard to the life of man in this world.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg.105
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