Masturbation, The Spiritual Battle Against The Flesh

I was asked about masturbation and what I thought of it. He then offered up, “Why is masturbation classed as a sin?” “I’m on Christian sites where people are saying that it’s all wrong and that you shouldn’t being stuff like that but surely God wants us to love either with a partner or ourself.” And finally, he said, “I just don’t want to do anything god doesn’t like but on the quite side we all have needs.” You can have a yearning to be Godly, yet deep down there is a knowledge that there is something not quite right about masturbation. I said that I wanted to give the person a real and considered response, and not just an off-the-cuff remark. So I told him that I would respond in a week.

Here are my thoughts on the matter.

Some say that the Bible does not mention masturbation or self-gratification or “solo sex,” as it’s sometimes called. They say that it is silent on the subject and that the Bible does not state whether or not masturbation is a sin.

Some people take the view that masturbation is a lustful act and is always wrong, but others question this, believing that it involves a normal bodily function and has nothing to do with sin.

Beginning with the Old Testament, a passage frequently associated with masturbation is the story of Onan in Genesis 38:9–10. The passage says, “Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.``

From this passage we can see that:

Onan had a duty to perform, and he failed in his duty.

On multiple occasions, he slept with Tamar, but he deceived her.

The Lord saw his actions as evil.

Onan was asked to have sex with a person, to have a relationship with her, not to have solo sex.

Some interpret this passage to say that “spilling seed”—the squandering of semen—is a sin. However, that is not what the passage is saying. God condemned Onan not for “spilling his seed” but because Onan was rebellious. Onan refused to fulfill his duty to provide an heir for his deceased brother. The passage is not about masturbation but about fulfilling a family obligation. Here, Onan was having sexual intercourse for the pleasure of it and effectively was simply using Tamar as an object, not as a person. Tamar would have been feeling despondent just as Hannah was when she was childless. 1 Sam 1 states, “In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.” Tamar was childless when it was taboo to be childless, and here Onan was completely unwilling to come to Tamar’s help. In fact, Onan found sexual pleasure at the expense of Tamar.

A second passage sometimes used as evidence that masturbation is a sin is Matthew 5:27–30, which says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Jesus speaks against having lustful thoughts and then says, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” While there is often a connection between lustful thoughts and masturbation, it is unlikely that Jesus was alluding to the specific sin of masturbation in this passage.

Though the Bible nowhere explicitly addresses masturbation, it does outline the purpose of sex. According to 1 Corinthians 7:2–5, “Each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” Implicit in this passage are the following truths: