Masturbation
It is a deregulated form of sexuality in which genitals are stimulated either by using hands or sex toys to obtain or give “pleasure”. Masturbation is usually done simultaneously with other autoerotic activities such as imagining sexual fantasies, reading an erotic magazine, or watching pornography.
Before even asking the question of whether masturbation is a sin or not, the one who practices it must first ask himself whether the autoerotic activities (imagining sexual fantasies, watching pornography, reading erotic magazines) that lead him to masturbate are approved by God.
In most cases, what drives people to masturbate is pornography. When a person masturbates on the basis of pornography, he or she sins first because looking at pornography is a sin, as I explained in the previous lines, and second because masturbating is sinning against one’s own body.
So what about the individual who imagines sexual fantasies? Some people say that masturbation isn’t always a sin. They say that it depends on the fantasy that the person creates for him/herself, they support the fact that if that fantasy is turned towards his/her own wife or husband then masturbating is not a sin, it is a healthy activity. I don’t agree with that at all. Let’s stay with their reasoning and destroy it together. Let’s ask ourselves.
What about a woman who masturbates while having the fantasy turned towards her husband? When she uses her fingers or sex toys to satisfy herself, doesn’t she sin? Of course she sins, because she changes the natural use into the unnatural one.
If a married woman uses the dildo or her fingers to masturbate while keeping the fantasy turned towards her husband, do you think the Lord Jesus approves of this? No!
Because this woman is acting like a lesbian. Being of the same sex, lesbians use sex toys and masturbate when they have to have sex. Because I don’t see any other way they can enjoy sex except masturbation. Their actions are not approved by God, it is because of these kinds of immoralities that Sodom and Gomorrah were burned.
It is masturbation, zoophilia, homosexual practices, and other practices contrary to God’s will that the apostle Paul speaks when he says This is why God abandoned them to debasing passions: their wives gave up natural sex for unnatural practices (Romans 1:26/Translated from the French version Louis Second).
The theories saying that a woman who masturbates with her fantasy turned towards her husband does not sin before God and a man who masturbates with his thoughts turned towards his wife does not sin are false.
After practicing masturbation one always feels impure in front of the Lord no matter who his fantasies turn to. Also by dint of masturbation, no matter who the fantasies are turned to, one ends up becoming an addict and slave to the practice. Addiction is the stage where you lose self-control, you start doing things without really knowing why you are doing them. There will be like an inner force that will start to dominate you. And that’s not what the Lord wants from us. Anything that fights our self-control fights the Holy Spirit since self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Masturbation satisfies your body more than it satisfies the Spirit of the Lord. It is bad, period!
Furthermore, the Lord has set one and only one way for man and woman to enjoy sexuality in marriage. It is the natural sexual intercourse between a married man and a married woman. Any other form used to enjoy sex that is contrary to the one set by God is an unnatural use that God does not approve of. On top of that, keeping the fantasy focused on one person while masturbating is not always easy, especially since in a second countless images can circulate in our brain. What about a man who masturbates with his fantasy turned towards his wife and suddenly his thoughts turn to another woman and then back to his wife again? Do you see how hard it will be for this man to keep only his thoughts fixed on his wife? Especially since thoughts do not always obey us. Sometimes we have journeys of thoughts, and we pull ourselves together. Then in this case, will the man just repent of the part where his thoughts were turned to another woman? It’s still ridiculous to think like that.
Instead of trying to justify our sins, let us rather ask for strength from the Lord Jesus so that we do not fall.
Besides, a man’s sperm has a very specific destination. This sacred semen is not to be deposited anywhere and anyhow. In the Bible (Genesis 38:8-9), the Lord God put Onan to death because he defiled himself on the ground when he united with the wife of his brother (who had already died). In those days in Israel, the levirate was applied. When a man died, it was his brother who had to take his wife. The children that the brother of the deceased would have with his wife would not be considered his offspring but that of his deceased brother.
So this story talks about a man named Onan who threw his sperm on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother Er because he knew that these children would not be considered his (read the story in Genesis 38:1-9) and because of this God struck him dead. The thought and the context of this story tells us that God struck Onan firstly for his bad faith in not wanting to give his brother posterity, and secondly that Onan’s shameful act of voluntarily throwing his seed to the ground could not be approved by God. This is why God put him to death.
Let those who support that masturbation is not always a sin tell us where does a man who masturbates with his fantasy turned towards his wife throw his sperm? Isn’t it on the floor in most cases like Onan? If God didn’t approve it for Onan, how will He approve it today for a man who does it consciously?
Masturbation is also called onanism. Etymologically this word comes from the Onan character we have just seen.
Do we then ask ourselves what happened to Onan after doing this? The Bible tells us clearly that God killed him. The sinful origin of the word “onanism,” synonymous with masturbation, already reveals to us the fate God has in store for those who take pleasure in doing so.
In addition to the facts mentioned above, masturbation is also in the category of impurities mentioned by the apostle Paul in Galatians 5:19. Indeed, he who masturbates defiles his body which is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
Masturbation can become idolatry or a god for some people. Indeed, idolatry is not only the worship of false gods, but it is also excessive love for something. It is placing the love of something above God. Then, he who masturbates becomes an idolater in the sense that he loves the desires of the flesh more than God, he places his fleshly desires above the Authority of Christ who forbids it.
Like any other sin, masturbation is dishonoring our heavenly Father and despising His authority. When a father commands something to his children, and the children despise his commandments, the father is irritated but also saddened in the depths of his heart. It is the same thing that happens to our Father when we disobey His commandments.
Masturbating is sinning against God. If we have been saved it is because Jesus Christ had preserved His body from all defilement, and He then offered it as a sacrifice for us. If it was an unclean body, it would have no impact. So you see that the holiness of the body is very important to God.
But in all these things there is no reason to condemn anyone, especially since the Lord Himself looks at us all with compassion and not with anger, always being ready to tell us “I do not condemn you, go but sin no more”. Just repent!