I would like to state in no way am i trying to be rude or offensive or funny. I apoligize in advance if this is not proper to talk about but this is a question i chould not build the courage to ask my pastor. I know masturbation is a sin because of the l;lust and all. But what if you masturbate with out thinking of anything sexual or watching pornography and the such? im embarashed to ask this but i rather ask fellow believers instead of keeping in quiet if im wrong. i do apoligize iof this offended you

Jesus told me: "Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor".
I've not done that yet.
I probably will never do it.

Of all my sins that bother my conscience, the one that bothers me most is: I could help the poor more than I do. There are people (and children) perishing in the Third World, right now,.........they lack physical food, and Spiritual food (bibles and missionaries).

And my conscience is not clean.
Yet, I have some confidence before God. I have some Joy, and Love. and Hope. I have some "assurance of salvation". The Holy Spirit witnesses with my spirit, that I am a child of God.

My point is:
I need to work on the BIG issues first, ......and I'll work on (what i think are) smaller issues later.

There are probably two types of people in the world, masterbaters and liars. EVERYONE who reads this has done it many times in their lives. I believe that in Corithians when it talks about God providing a way to escape the temptation, I believe masterbating is one way of escape. Is it a sin? I know a bigger sin would be to go have real sex with a man, woman or hooker!

I know that sins are supposedly all the same. Actually they are, but they are diferent in Gods eyes (same) and through our eyes (diferent).

To God all sin is sin, to us, some are worse than others. It would be a lesser deal it you masterbated in a mans house as opposed to comitting adultery with your hosts wife in his house. To God they may be the same, but the man-law of the land has it's "level of surverity", as well.

Answer? I say get up and start doing something to get your mind off the thoughts at present. If ya can't, masterbate and keep striving to become strong enough in that area to have discipline over it. Until then, if you succumb from time to time, remember to NEVER BELIEVE THE LIE from Natas that because you masterbate, God is ashamed of you and now you are unworthy to be his child.

That is true with all sins, NEVER let the lies Satan will bring your way trying to separate your relationship with God.

Summary: If you masterbate, you are still a child of God and he who is in Heaven loves you and understands.

Conclusion: Strive to refrain from masterbating though prayer and trial and error. Don't beat yourself up for failing.

Advice: No bodie's business.

There is a book we got our foster child to read because he was having problems in this area. The name of the book is "Every Young Man's Battle". The book is written by Stephen Arterburn. It's about strategies for victory in the real world of sexual temptation.
In this world you're surrounded by sexual images that open the door to timptation. T. V. billboards. magazines, music, ther internet and to easy to access that it sometimes feels impossible to escape their clutches. There is temptation everywhere. Please find the book and let me know what you think of it.
Kim

Everyone has given good advise. But here is the bottom line. Overcome it through the blood of the Lamb and by asking Him for His Spirit. Otherwise you will perish with the tares when they are burned. Plain and simple. The Lord said ask and it shall be given. So ask Him for His Spirit so that you can walk righteously in his sight.

Lets work on the issues that God convicts us of as he convicts us of them, not prioritize them by what "we" say are big or small, or take them on at our own leisure.

If God puts something on your heart,,,should you resolve it right away, or should make God wait for your answer?

To the rich man,,,,Jesus said "sell all you have and give to the poor"
The rich man went away sad, because, the one thing Jesus put on his heart to do, he didnt want to do.

What would Jesus say to the poor man then? The prodigals? The adulterous men/women? The liars? The theives? People who dont wear their seatbelt while driving? The slanderers? and so on and so on to include even you and me?

Whatever he says,,,,there is only one right answer to his instruction,,,
"yes Lord"
not
"after I do this first" or "but Im working on bigger things first"


The question,,,
masturbation


My own opinion, It depends.
Masturbation is a substitution for sex.
Should you even be having sex?
Sex is something for a husband and wife to share.
Do you have a wife?
Can you not go to her?
If you've no wife, you shouldn't be having sex, or substituting for sex.
If you have a wife,,,isn't it wrong for you to be having sex without her? Wouldn't that be unfaithful?
Can you wait for her?
Is something wrong?
Sex outside the confines of marriage is adultery ,and adultery is sin.



Everyman's Battle is an Excellent book

There is certainly a lot of hysteria about this with some people likening the act to self-fornication or adultery. The only passage which deals with this in the Bible is
Lev 15:16 And if any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even. 17 And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even. 18 The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.

Notice that the reason for the emission is not mentioned. This could be referring to a nocturnal dream or masturbation or both. The scripture is not clear. If it was a matter of great importance then surely the scripture would have clarified it. Notice also that being unclean is not a matter of great sin. For if it were then a husband and wife would be commiting a great sin as described in verse 18. No it doesn't say that they are great sinners it says that they need to be washed. This would have been incredibly inconvenient to have to wash all the time and so would have discouraged daily habitual behaviour and so keeping the acts less frequent. A policy which I recommend in both cases.

How many young men so desiring to please God have been led into crippling guilt needlessly by the overzealous teachers who see sin everywhere and the fires of hell around every corner. Am I excusing lust and pornography which often accompany masturbation? Certainly not. However let's be realistic and not place impossible burdens on unmarried people, boys especially.

RAF says masturbation is a substitute for sex. And then says sex outside marriage is sin. So which is it? Is masturbation sex or not? The prohibitions in the Bible are clearly against sexual intercourse which by definition are interactions between two or more people. So therefore masturbation is not sexual intercourse. Therefore when it says in 1 Cor 7 "better to marry than to burn" it is talking about where a man is unable to contain himself from touching a woman, see verse 1. "It is good for a man not to touch a woman". Marriage was therefore recommended to avoid what? Masturbation? No. Marriage was recommended to avoid fornication which is by definition "voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other"

Now I realise that the modern translations use the term sexual immorality in this place and so bring everybody into condemnation (or nobody depending on who is using the passage). The KJV however is quite specific as to why the injunction to marry was given. So that the singles and widows will not fornicate.

It would be good to do without, to guard yourself.

Is it possible to keep ones thoughts captive enough while masterbaiting that they dont cross that line of lusting for another person? Fornicating with someone in their heart?

whoever looks at a woman longingly commits adultery with her in their heart.
that longing look, the second thought, the daydream, is adultery.

God knows our hearts and our thoughts.

One cannot light a fire in their lap and not expect to get burned by it.

Masturbating (or abstaining) is not the key to heaven though.
many people might not enter the kingdom of God, not because they do or dont masturbate,,,,but because they dont have a heart for God.

Have a heart for Christ, believe in him, follow him, grow in him.

It would be good to do without, to guard yourself.

Good points, however Christ was talking about an illicit fantasy with a woman other than your wife however in a single man such thoughts are the natural sex drive that God created in man to cause men and women to come together and get married. In a youth these thoughts would be quite innocent and simple fantasies were it not for the evils of pornography and licentiousness, which is another matter entirely.

I'm certainly not advocating habitual lust and living after the flesh. I commend all young men to strive to keep their minds off women and seek after the things of God and sports, hobbies, friends and activities. This is the same advice Paul gave. But if you want to call a young man's sex drive an evil lust then you accuse God who created it in him. I say that one of the products of having a normal sex drive is that occasionally (not habitually or uncontrollably) masturbation will occur. As I have explained, this is not sin although the body and the clothes should be washed afterwards.

People are not ENTITLED to a sex life with another person.
For example, a married man, whose wife is sick, dis-abled, or away on a trip,...........is the husband ENTITLED to an adulterous affair or divorce and re-marriage? No. He becomes celibate, within marriage.

A homosexual man is not ENTITLED to a sex life with a man. He must be celibate.

A single man is not ENTITLED to sex-before-marriage (sex with a girl). He must be celibate.

Paul was celibate and single.
Peter was married.

A pedophile/sex-predator is not ENTITLED to sex-with-children. He must be celibate.

Jesus was single and celibate,.......yet, He found Joy in life.

First of all, do you notice that sexual laws are the Old Testamentic laws?
It's a question many should consider, not only you: are you also that scrupulous about eating pig meat?
I often wonder why christians make a selection in sexual matters where the impurity by pig meat or sexuality isn't that different. It's both relatively easy to reconcile or purify compared to other things.

The greater upper priests and prophets were more often married with children than they were not.
Jesus is not an example for how we should get on with our sexuality for he is seen as far more divine than us. The disciples had a way of life (wandering converters) which is a personal decision. Notice that they still depended on settled people who gave them their hospitality by living in a house, working and having families.

It doesn't really seem to influence the clarity of their God contacts.
Polygamy was also allowed, with the example of Jacob.
King David could be attracted to a woman for sexual reasons while not knowing anything about her character (Bathseba). The main sin was how he got her. Lust is that thing which makes a relationship between man and woman what it is, and is a different aspect of love than drinking a cup of coffee with your grandmother.

Masturbation or having a wet dream (see the Law of God) is a very mild sin.
According to the Law of God, one is impure until next sundown, has to wash the body and the clothes and is pure again. Having sex or having an ejaculation was reconciled in the Old Testament by offering a pigeon, as far as I remember. What's my main deal about it, is why modern day church doesn't sacrifice. I really wouldn't know how this thing would be reconciled in the modern day if we are still supposed to do something instead of only wait until the Redemption.

Masturbation in the case of Onan is the only bible story where there is mention of an example of masturbation.
There are many other things which could have been the real sin about it:
- Onan refused an order by his father to take the wife of his deceased brother to be a stand-in to continue his name. The name of his brother would be erased at Onan's refusal. How he refused is by not entering the woman, but I think it's not the only issue about this story... Disobeying a lawful demand from the father I can hardly think that this is not a far more serious offense.
- Lustfulness for sex is something that is not the real issue because it can be there in legitimate as well as illegitimate types of sex. I wonder if Onan really had lust about her or that it was a kind of duty to him.

Myself I have also some increasing trouble with masturbation. Not that I do it really often but since I see more and more logic in the Bible my conscience starts playing up when there comes up a fantasy about someone who's married, or pornography. Maybe the best thing to settle these issues is to try to do something about the singleness that gives some a greater difficulty with this than others. Masturbation I noticed, can also be fed by what is called "drive". It could ebb away if other activities are developed about which you are content, masturbation may have a component of finding a satisfaction that cannot be get in other fields of life as well, not only sexual, then it's about the general feeling of content. Masturbation seeks for short term content, direct at hand, while the problem that's really the issue may be a bit more structural. Compare smoking away a problem. If those things are solved, there is a good chance that masturbation drops from 2 times a day to once every 3 days without you having to suppress any of it. Something I noticed personally.

Greets, Divinespark