Is It Acceptable For Christians To Masturbate?

Disclaimer: This article contains references from the Bible and is deemed unsuitable to those belonging to the Muslim faith.

Why do we masturbate? All sort of reasons – stress release, pass time, etc. But truth is there are other things we can do to release stress like hitting the gym for a healthy workout, catching up with friends for a drink and we can read a book to increase our knowledge or play a console game to pass time. So with such endless possibilities God has blessed us with why then do we still resort to masturbation?

Frankly we masturbate for one purpose which is to gratify our sexual lust and sadly almost always accompanied with pornographic materials to heighten the sensation and pleasure.

While the Bible seems to be silent on the subject matter, is it acceptable then for the Children of God to masturbate especially when we are called to be holy in everything we do (1 Peter 1:15) and to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1)?

FYI God is not completely silent when it comes to masturbation. In Matthew 5:28 Jesus makes it very clear that ‘anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’

Stop and meditate on Matthew 5:28 for a moment then try to remember how you feel towards the woman when you are masturbating looking at pornographic materials or the mental image conjured in your mind. Take some time to reflect on this and pray about it. Soon enough I believe you will come to realise how startling similar masturbation is as described in Matthew 5:28 that when you are masturbating, you are indeed looking at the woman lustfully in your heart, with or without pornographic materials.

Matthew 5:28 makes it clear then that masturbation is not pleasing to God and therefore should deter Christians from indulging in masturbation.

However our unwillingness to completely let go of the pleasure of masturbation and our inability to discipline our mind to exhibit self-control over our body have us constantly challenging the truth and in doing so we are giving the devil a foothold to come out with all sort of excuses or justification to masturbate.

One such justification that caught my attention is the ability to masturbate without lusting over a woman like how young innocent boys first discover masturbation during shower at the tender age of 8 or 9 years old. That maybe the case at that time but with exposure to pornography or even past experience of actual sexual relationship, it becomes impossible to masturbate free from sexual lust completely. If sexual lust is not involved at all during masturbation as claimed there won’t be an urge to masturbate in the first place.

Meditate on Ephesians 4:27 and heed Paul’s advice – ‘do not give the devil a foothold’ in distorting the truth on Matthew 5:28 and that masturbation is in no way pleasing to God at all.

Unless otherwise noted, all articles written by Peng Jun Kiat. Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved. Permission must be specifically granted in writing for use or reprinting.