TL

”Both NN and I have repeatedly said that Biblical authority is loving, self- sacrifice, nourishing, cherishing, my-life-for yours. However we have been repeatedly told that this definition isn’t authority. “

Tiffany,
It isn’t. You could say that one exercises his/her authority in that manner yet it will still be authority they are exercising however kindly. Your definition is not a definition of authority of any kind. And redefining a word so that you can keep using the word doesn’t really work. Everyone else is going to be using the normal definition of the word and thinking to exercise it according to it’s definition.
Authority noun,plural-ties.
1.the power to determine, adjudicate, or otherwise settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine.
2.a power or right delegated or given; authorization: Who has the authority to grant permission?
3.a person or body of persons in whom authority is vested, as a governmental agency.
4.Usually, authorities. persons having the legal power to make and enforce the law; government: They finally persuaded the authorities that they were not involved in espionage.

However any Biblical authority is used, will not change the nature of the authority. Thus we are still left with determining who does or doesn’t have the power to determine actions, control, command, give permissions and to whom is that authority exercised over.

Such importance as having power over another person in any form is not something we randomly throw around to anyone. It must be specifically given by God. And what people have been saying on this thread is that there is no Scripture that ‘authoritatively’ authorizes husbands to exercise authority (control, determine actions, command, allow or disallow activities) over their wives. Those who seek to do so, do so by taking apart a metaphor and assigning a new inference from a piece of the metaphor forgetting the implications of the rest of the metaphor. (head of and body of)

The fact that Christ as 100% God and 100% Human, has authority over all humanity (including the church – members of His Body) means nothing in relationship to the marriage relationship unless God says it does , and God has not said that it does. So, when you speak of Christ having all the authority and we have none, it is not relevant to the marriage relationship because marriage isn’t about the authority of anyone. Marriage is about two becoming as one in a covenantal relationship of man and woman. AND when you talk about Christ having 100% of the authority and try to transfer that concept to husbands you bring in a warped picture of unity in marriage. You bring in a picture of the man having all privileges and the wife having none, solely dependent upon the man for everything. This is not maturity or unity.

”The discussion of the uniqueness of the wife’s submission and the husbands sacrifice and the nature of his relationship to the wife is more than just cultural commentary for it is representing something eternal, not jut dealing with changing cultural attitudes of the day.”

The wife’s submission is not unique, it is merely more personal than the submission we all have with one another. And the husbands sacrifical love is not unique either (only more personal) since it is the same sacrificial love that we all are admonished to show to one another (Ephe. 5:1-2).

I’m not sure what you mean by “the uniqueness of the wife’s submission …..for it is representing something eternal”.