Re: Is Masturbation a sin?
Submitted by Ben on 2002-07-13 07:59:06, Saturday
In reply to Is Masturbation a sin? submitted by coffee_kid on 2002-07-10 22:40:11, Wednesday
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Hi coffee kid, Sorry I'm coming into this fairly late. Your question is one that I most definately have labored over during my short Christian walk. As a young boy of eleven and into my adult thirties now, I have always been heavily involved in masturbation. There were years when I would masturbate three times a day and much of my spare time was spent fueling my fantasies by lusting and watching young boys around me. From a purely biblical standpoint, I agree that masturbation is not specifically mentioned. If you really can masturbate without thinking about anything sexual than perhaps you really are not sinning. The argument that God created it and therefore it must be good does not work for me. God created our hands but that doesn't mean that he expects us to strangle people with them. God created spit, but that doesn't mean that he expects us to spit on people. God created our sexuality to be a unifying experience with our spouse when we get married. I believe that any mis-use of that creation is a perversion of God's purpose for it. Jesus told us to DENY OURSELVES and take up our cross daily. There is nothing biblical about giving in to our own desire. No prophet was heralded for his easy life in following God. Following God is HARD and it requires sacrifice. In Hebrews 12:4 Paul said, "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. " Okay, don't panic. All of this above to say that I believe that masturbation IS a sin. But lets remember what Jesus came for. He came to show us that we were ALL SINNERS and that we ALL fall short. We sin every single day, because we are human, not God in the flesh. Jesus came to justify us even though we are still sinners. In principle we need to continue to AIM for God's standard, to keep trying to lead lives more like Jesus. But we need to accept our forgiveness and to move on, even when we keep asking for it again and again. Remember in Matthew 18 where Peter was asking Jesus for the number of times that he can forgive his brother. Peter suggested seven times, but Jesus came back with seventy seven. Was this really the fixed limit of forgiveness? Most biblical scholars say "no". That the number seventy seven was meant to indicate ALOT, but not a specific amount. We are justified FREELY by God's grace and we need to connect with that and not dwell on the fact that we can't be perfect. But this being said, we don't want to deceive ourselves into thinking something isn't sinful. THAT is turning from God's sincere pleasure to forgive us. That would be ignoring his grace and just hiding from the truth. This is my interpretation of the masturbation question. I hope it helps. You are not alone. Love, Ben |
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