The subject of masturbation, in a lot of Christian circles, is taboo to talk about. Generally a hard line, “It is sin!”, is taken with no real answers given. Because it mainly concerns what is considered the physically strongest portion of our society, our young males, the subject is not usually touched upon, even by a ten foot pole. This leaves most Christian young men (who are also usually immature in their walk with the Lord) with deep scars and no solutions. One young man wrote, “I get a horrible feeling that the more I masturbate, the more God will ‘retire’ things from my life. I don’t know how to say this exactly, but I’ll give you an example: if I masturbate, God won’t let me have the job that I’ve always dreamed of, and sometimes I feel like my parents are going to get killed because of my masturbation. I know they’re kind of stupid, but right after I masturbate that’s how I always feel.”
First, let’s just look at the scientifics of it. For young men, their seminal vesicles get close to full, usually about once or twice a week — for some guys it happens more often and for a few guys it is less often. Guys aren’t going to get to the point where they don’t ejaculate. The male body is designed to constantly produce semen and sperm. Those products have expiration dates, so to keep the supply fresh the male body gets rid of the old to make room for the new. So, if a man does not masturbate while awake, the body still needs to get rid of the old semen. What will happen is that a guy will start having wet dreams, where they masturbate in their sleep. These will come infrequently at first, but as their body adapts, they will come more frequently until the proper balance is found.
The act of masturbation by itself is neither right nor wrong. What must be determined is if masturbating is done out of need or has it become a habit. What can make it wrong is overindulgence or using pornography to get yourself aroused enough to masturbate. Pornography is where the real problem lies. It is designed to sexually arouse you, but the more you’re aroused, the faster your seminal vesicles produce semen. The more often the seminal vesicles are full, the more you crave looking at pornography in order to ejaculate. Thus, a vicious cycle occurs that never ends. Like other sins, pornography gives temporary pleasure, but it doesn’t fully satisfy and comes with a lot of guilt as baggage.
The following two PDF’s I have attached are probably the best I have found. The author approaches the subject head-on with a realistic and biblical perspective. Along with it he brings in the baggage of lust and pornography and exposes them for the sin they are:
Is Masturbation Unacceptable PDF
Still Confused About Masturbation PDF
An important point that the author left out in the above two PDF’s concerns this verse: “But if they can’t control themselves, they should go ahead and marry. It’s better to marry than to burn with lust.” (1 Corinthians 7:9 NLT)
Scenario is this for all those that take the hard line and condemn those young men who masturbate to relieve themselves so they don’t lust: When the vesicles fill up it is very similar to when the urine bladder fills up. The only difference is that when the seminal fluids fill up, there is a sexual triggering in the mind that becomes hard to control. The mind wanders towards lust that is not easy to control. A danger zone is entered if a young man only relies on wet dreams to relieve himself. So the question is as it is in 1 Corinthians 7:9, “Is it better to burn with lust?”
The bottom line is this: Masturbation when done mechanically, without lust or pornography, and only done when relief is necessary before the danger zone is reached, does not appear to be wrong according to the Bible. But each individual must take in mind: “But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat (or do) something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.” (Romans 14:23 NLT)
Beware of any Biblical teachers who lump all masturbation into a sinful act. I believe it is much better for a young man to protect himself by relieving himself rather than getting his girlfriend into bed and committing a downright sinful act. Being a Christian is not about bringing torture upon ourselves because of our physical make-up. I remember one time many years ago John Bevere came to our church and preached on how he was addicted to masturbation and how he overcame it. Problem was, he left a teaching that all masturbation was heinous and demonic in nature. This left a harmful effect that reverberated throughout the years on our men that left some in a hopeless situation. Our God is not a cruel God and His Word the Bible must be rightly divided and not slanted.
May God Bless you as you ponder through the material in this post. Only you can decide how to deal with being a Christian man in this sexually perverse generation. Here are two Scriptures to leave you with:
1. If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21 NLT)
2. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 NLT)
Annointing 