Heb 13:4

Subject:

Comments:
: There is actually another topic on masturbation answered under "Questions not openly discussed in my church community". I have included it here for you and edited a little to suit this question. I think that this will answer your other questions. Dr Tong has addressed this before in QnA session. My answer runs along the same reasoning with some additions of my own. : The other question not addressed is that of pornography. Like Dr Tong, I am also an artist, producing paintings and sculptures on a regular basis. As a person with an eye to art, I can tell you that there is a very fine line between art and pornography. As you wrote, the Song of Solomon can be construed to be erotic, if not pornographic. One US judge says that he finds it difficult to define pornography, but when he sees it, he knows it. I would argue that people who put up pornography have no qualms about what they are doing - they know they are promoting pornography. The right attitude of Christians should be to err on the side of conservatism, rather than on the side of being liberal. That way, there is not much need to worry about defining pornography. : ==== : It is interesting how this topic still remains sort of a taboo in church. I remember IMPACT magazine devoting section on it, and that was more than 20 years ago when I was a teenager, and I thought back then that the magazine was being very open. So many years have passed, and yet few people talk about this topic. : You are quite right that medical and psychology experts are teaching acceptance. I taught about this in my church, and the young people told me that their school is teaching that masturbation is to be accepted, and can be appreciate as a stress and sexual tension release mechanism. : Your overall approach is generally correct. However, to say that the physical act of masturbation is not sin is a little difficult to accept because it is probably impossible to masturbate without sexual thoughts, and as you have mentioned, sexual thoughts outside of marriage is certainly considered by Christ as sin (Matthew 5:27-28). So rather than split hairs about what is an act, and what is the thought, one can just deal with masturbation alone as sin. : I would certainly agree that based on biblical understanding, masturbation is sin. It is not very possible to escape from that conclusion, especially based on what Christ had said. This stems not from a legalistic idea of sexuality; but more from the understanding that sexuality is an expression of love, of physically serving and pleasing your life-long partner in marriage. So anything that breaks that God-designed relationship is sin. Masturbation's problem is lust without commitment, love without purpose, pleasure without conscience. : Having pointed that out, I would need to say that while masturbation is a sin, one needs to understand the consequences, and place this sin in the correct context and order. In other words, one needs to not be overly obsessed with this failure, or sin. : I would point out that while in the eyes of God, all sins are serious and drive a wedge between us and God, the fact is that not all sins have the same consequences. If one masturbates, it is a sin but this sin has consequences that are a lot less severe than when one commits fornication, or adultery (involving another human being). When one commits fornication or adultery, that sin has less consequences than when one commits fornication that resulted in a child being conceived (involving the creation of a physical parent-child relationship that cannot ever be broken). : The illustration that I have used often is that of a seed. When you commit a sin, a seed takes root in your heart and becomes a plant. When you confess your sins, the LORD Jesus Christ yanks that plant out, and you are completely, absolutely forgiven. But if that plant is large, it may be yanked out, but it will take a long time to rot and decay away. Masturbation is like a seed that has taken root. Adultery with a child conceived is like a giant tree. If you commit adultery and a child is conceived; if you truly honestly repent, the LORD will forgive you as promised in the scripture (1 John 1:9). But the child is alive, and you need to face the consequences for the rest of your life. : In this sense then, masturbation as a sin is of lesser consequences. Strictly speaking, when a man is making love to his wife and fantasizing about another woman, he too commits the same type of sin. : I would also need to point out that one needs to make sure that we do not fall into the trap of the devil, who accuses us day and night (Rev 12:10). Many Christians have given up, thinking that since they cannot control their sexual urges, they are of no good to the LORD. Worse still, many simply give up and move into the next step of fornication, and leave the church (this is one of the greatest problem of masturbation, as it typically leads to pornography, and later fornication). The fact is that we are not perfected yet (what theology termed the 'already and not yet' - we are already saved, but not yet perfected), so we will surely continue to sin in our physical life time. The Christian journey is a slow and difficult one, and we will fall and get up many times along the way. We will learn that a Christian still sins, but he does so as an exception rather than the rule. He is not sinless, but should sin less (and lesser and lesser as he grows). : The problem with masturbation of course is that it has to do with sexuality, the most intense human experience ever here on earth (Billy Graham says heaven must be better than sex - and of course he is right). So the subsequent thought and emotions are intense as well, as are the guilt feelings. Over-focusing on these guilt feelings would create severe psychological problems. : Remember that in terms of sin, one sins all the time in other areas as well. I would submit that certainly we get angry, we lie, we hate others (and hence 'murder' them by Christ's definition in Matthew 5:21, same chapter where you got the adultery definition), we are selfish, we hurt others, etc. alot more than we masturbate. If so, are we to feel as guilty about all these as we do masturbation? We generally pray, repent, ask for forgiveness and move on, don't we? Masturbation as a sin then, should not be viewed or handled in any way differently, especially since I have already explained about consequences. In this manner, I would encourage young people to put this sin in the proper context, and not be over-whelmed by their failings. But it is difficult of course, primarily because it has to do with sexuality, the most intense human experience and gift that the LORD has given to us. : So is it possible NOT to masturbate? The answer must be yes. Here, the difficulty lies in determine the acceptable duration between masturbation. If a person has masturbated once before, does that mean that he is no longer celibate? What about twice a year, twice a month, twice a day? Like I mentioned earlier, it is strange that we don't keep count of the last time we lie, but we do about masturbation, indicating the strong emotive pull (hence the danger of over-focus). I would say that one should not do a scoreboard, but focus on the immediate time ahead when avoiding sexual sins. Also, the scoreboard mentality would encourage you to compare yourself with others. If you keep comparing and thinking about whether other people keep away from this sin, you are actually going into arguments that will lead to self-righteousness. We should deal with our own weaknesses and failures, and measure them against the WORD of God, not against other people, or a time-line. : But to answer your question as to whether this is impossible for man to overcome, scripture certainly promises that His grace is sufficient for us to overcome even such temptations (2 Cor 12:9); so we can be assured that this can be overcome, because God said so. When the apostle Paul wrote about getting married rather than burning (1 Cor 7:9), he was talking about the reason for abandoning singlehood. Most people believe that a sign of God's calling for one to be single and thus celibate (with no sexual activities) would be the ability to handle one's sexual desires. Masturbation cannot count as a tool for handling that desire. A true celibate would simply not even masturbate. By God's special grace, he is able to handle his sexual desires without masturbating. I do believe that there are people around who have this gift. : I am going to assume that you are not married. When you get married, you will discover that masturbation is a very small part of sexuality. Sexuality itself is a challenge, as the biblical demand compel one to express love through sex as an act of selflessness, not selfishness. Then you will get to know why masturbation is not how He designed sexuality to be, because ultimately, it is a selfish act. : Like all the other ups and downs of our spiritual walk (as in sinning by lying, hating, arrogance, whatever), masturbation will form part of anyone's growing up experience; both physically and spiritually. Accept it as part of growing up, and learn to handle it step at a time without falling to the extreme of giving up, being over-obsessed with the failure. As with all sins, when we sin, we want to repent, seek the LORD's forgiveness, and move on. We may fail again, and again. But the LORD will even use these failures to continue to mold a person throughout his life (even married people masturbate and continue to deal with the same issues). His grace is truly sufficient for us.

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL: