A4P Guest: Can you give us evidence why masturbation is wrong? When it’s been said that between 95 and 98 percent of young men are engaged in masturbation and the rest lie about it, don’t we add burden of guilt on men when we say masturbation is a sin?

A4P: Before I say anything, let me say this: “Burden of guilt” – guilt feeling, feeling sorrowful about what we do/did is a God-given emotion; it always leads to repentance when its source is the Holy Spirit.

 

“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” 2 Corinthians 7:10 NASB

 

So, you asked me to give you evidence to convince you that masturbation is a sin, right?

What evidence do we need regarding masturbation more than our own conscience?

Let’s say I gave you enough evidence to convince you that masturbation is nothing but a blessing from God, do you think you will accept it as a blessing and live with it enjoying it, without any guilt and fear?

Many people, both believers and unbelievers, live with masturbation not because they accepted it as a blessing or one of the normal biological phenomena but they don’t know how to live without it. They fought against it many times but they couldn’t win the battle. After trying to stop the practice many times, they threw in the towel and decide to live with it. Then they look for evidence to justify the practice so that they can silence the guilt feeling they carry with themselves.

The topic of masturbation is controversial only when we want to ignore our conscience. We are not animals; but human beings created in God’s image. We are spirit, soul and body. God provided sexual gratification and fulfillment not only to our bodies but to “the whole of us”, to our spirit, soul and body.

Masturbation only gives sexual relief/release to our body, ignoring our spirit and soul.

Oh, do you know what that means? It means our soul and spirit have to look for sexual gratification somewhere else than masturbation. That is why one-masturbation-a-day may not be a good enough dose for the person who is engaged in this practice. They assume and think that there will be sexual contentment from the next masturbation. Why? Their soul and spirit are left hanging, getting nothing out of the masturbation; and they constantly demand sexual gratification without giving them any rest.

To find rest and contentment, one thinks that he/she has to move to the next level, like looking for porn or other sexually explicit movies/shows/dramas/erotic fictions to make the masturbation even more exciting and fulfilling.

That is nothing but VANITY! VANITY! VANITY, because no amount of sexual practice can give fulfillment and contentment to our body, soul and spirit except the sexual intimacy God created and blessed; that is the sexual intimacy between one man and one woman who are married. That is how God designed sex, my friend.

Do you want evidence for what I just said?

You are the evidence. Your conscience, your soul and spirit are the evidence.

Tell me: After masturbating, what do you feel? Do you feel like kneeling down and praying, worshiping God and saying to Him things like, “Oh, Holy LORD, thank You for helping me to figure out how to release my sexual tension through masturbation. I love masturbation and please bless me with more ways to masturbate so that I would enjoy life?”

Hmm! Let me leave that question to you as I move to my next point.

Oh, my friend, we don’t need any evidence; no psychologist, or psychiatrist or a theologian can free us from our spirit and soul’s constant question which goes something like this: “Why do I masturbate? I want to be free from this! I don’t want this! I want to stop this! This is not good for me! I hate it! Where can I find my freedom from this bondage?”

Truth is truth whether the whole world is against it or not, or whether 98 or 100% of people are saying that it is false. Truth is independent of us. It lives by itself. It doesn’t need or require our agreement or votes for its existence.

Just because 98% of young men are engaged in masturbation, and 2% are lying about it while they very much are engaged in the practice, doesn’t make masturbation a right practice.

Evidence?

The evidence is your God-given-conscience! Don’t go against it because your conscience is the one major thing that differentiates you from animals.

Let me leave you with this one important reality: Ignoring our conscience, and going against it will earn us what the Bible calls “a callous conscience!” Read the following passage carefully:

“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” Ephesians 4:17-19 NASB

Notice the following phrases: “being darkened in their understanding,” “the hardness of their heart,” and “having become callous” (the New International Version says, “having lost all sensitivity” – these all are expressions of a callous conscience. –

The result of a callous conscience is this: We give ourselves over to sensuality and impurity!

One last note before I let you go: In my opinion, being introduced to masturbation and being addicted to it are not as a big deal as trying to deny its reality and choosing to live with it!

Good day! ///