TL

NN, thanks for the link. Used to have a link to a particular area that gave me the ability to punch in an English word and get back a list of relevant greek words from which I could choose in order to get a detailed lexicon entry. But it looks different. Hope I can find that area.

As to your question, your statement has lots of negative connotations. God doesn’t really use us. He guides us to maturity, wholeness, healing, etc. from His Creative powers as God. God’s desires are always for our benefit, which is to His glory and honor. It is not a matter of authority, for even authority as we think of it was created by God. God is beyond ideas of authority over benevolent or otherwise. It is the fact that God created us for purposes that are pure and holy. And Jesus died to redeem us, not to exercise or demonstrate His benevolent power over us, but because God loves us.

The marriage relationship doesn’t actually reflect God’s relationship with us, otherwise we have men reflecting God and women reflecting fallen humanity. Rather, God’s love for us reflects the proper desire for man and woman to so live as to be unified as if one. God wants us to be one with Him. He wants to so deeply meld with our souls that we are as one, in perfect harmonious unity. This does not mean that we lose our identity or give up our personality. The unity is perfect when we yield to God’s holiness, knowledge and perfect love which is always given to us for our benefit which shows His honor and glory.

Husbands OTOH are not to exercise authority over their wives, benevolent or not. Rather, husbands are to love their wives sacrificially, as if she were his own body/life. Without her, his life is bereft. Thus, he gladly sacrificies whatever is necessary to help them stay in harmonious unity.