This is a critical problem that affects most Christians, because much of the congregation consists of 55% to 80% sexually active young people ranging from 14 to 45 years old. And the sin of fornication is seen as a normal activity now in this current generation. What is our vision as Christians about masturbation, especially for those who have seen it as a remedy to avoid fornication? Should it be encouraged?
Romans 6:13 (lvl) do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of iniquity, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been delivered from death to life; and offer him the members of your body as instruments of justice.
Luke 14:28 (lvl) says that one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t he sit down first and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and cannot finish it, all who see it will mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and could not finish.
1 Peter 4:1-2 for, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you too must arm yourself with the determination to do the same -because whoever has suffered in the flesh has put an end to sin-, so that in the future you can spend the rest of your earthly days . lives, governed not by human passions, but by the will of God”
Furthermore, it is expressly known that the Bible is against all forms of fornication. Fornication has spiritual, psychological and physical representations. From the definitions of adultery, incest, lust and others, physical fornication is any sexual relationship that deviates from what God has arranged for man. Therefore, fornication is any deviant sexual conduct. Adultery deviates from sex within the confines of marriage. Promiscuity is deviant because it is sex outside of marriage, which is impious. Incest crosses lineage lines within the same family, which is prohibited. All of these deviant sexual acts fall under one umbrella of sin, which is called fornication. They are all examples of fornication, but not its definition. Fornication should be defined as the deviation from God’s commandment regarding the union of oneself in spirit, soul, or body. The reason masturbation is not included above is that it is not a deviation from a norm, it is a rejection of the norm. Lust is not adultery, but both are fornication. There is no way you would masturbate without lust. Lust is a longing for sexual intimacy, sometimes to the point of assuming a self-indulgent character. But with the influence of cultures, anything goes these days. When we talk about masturbation, we refer to sexuality as self-knowledge and the discovery of supreme pleasure, as well as anything else that has to do with the search for sexual achievement is worth mentioning.
In addition, we must also be careful not to take certain things for granted just because they are not axiomatically stated in Scripture. The same bible also tells us that there will come a time when the scriptures will no longer be on the scrolls but will be written in our hearts. What does this tell us? A good example would be this. Is it bad to smoke cigarettes? If so, where is it written in the scriptures? If you argue this point by saying that cigarette smoke has a negative effect on our bodies and therefore we sin against God when we give ourselves over to him, then we can also derive a similarly indirect approach to masturbation by saying that you will have to commit the sin. of fornication or adultery in your mind to masturbate for pleasure which is equally a sin.
In conclusion, the masturbation mechanism has two combined aspects that go hand in hand to obtain pleasure. The mechanical and mental aspect. Even in the physiology of sex, the fact that a person is aware of wanting to have sex in a few minutes will alert the brain centers to create some arousal and hormonal actions. Basically, what generates the mental image is a real life image of a nude couple or a sexual scene; a pornographic clip or image or also a mental image of a person you are attracted to. In any of these situations, at least the virtual image of a real person is involved, and with the clear image of this person, mechanical activity is aided in creating arousal. And from recent studies, scientific analysis has made it explicit that without this image, pleasure will not be derived (and the proof is the lack of arousal of some men despite the fact that they are faced with an attractive woman, but perhaps not it is). to them). That is, you cannot create excitement when the mother does the mechanical work without having that mental image. So, if you have in mind such images that you use to help pleasure, then you are already committing the sin of fornication or adultery with the real-life owner of the mental face or body. And with this simple analysis, it is a direct sin based on the first Bible verse mentioned above. It is still part of what Jesus Christ said in that verse and everyone falls into “mental sexual sin.”