Is Masturbation a Sin? | Faith Questions

Is masturbation a sin? It's one of the most avoided questions in the church — but Cyle, Cody, and Ryan tackle it head-on on this episode of HOTLCast. They walk through what Scripture actually says about lust, self-control, and sexual immorality, and why the "lesser sin" argument doesn't hold up biblically. They also get real about the shame cycle many people are stuck in, share some surprising statistics about how widespread this struggle is in the church, and offer practical encouragement for anyone who wants to break free. If this is your struggle, you're not alone — and this episode is for you.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to Faith Questions. Hotosty How. This is the Holocaust topic cycle. I'm Cody. I mean, and we're talking about masturbation. Is it a sin, Cody? Yes. Yep. What did you what did you think I was gonna say? I thought you would have a bigger one. I mean, it's a hard it's a much it's a much more deep answer than you would think because uh within the safety of marriage and within the safety of what you're doing as spouses, it can be something. I don't think that's normal people's question. I've got this question exactly. But normally people are asking outside of marriage is is masturbation a sin? Yes, masturbation is a sin. I mean the Bible talks about certain things. Um there's a Bible verse that says if your right hand calls you a sin, cut it off. People often will throw that out. There's people will use Bible verses to talk about things not in the Bible to say it's a sin. I've heard that before. Or to misinterpret the intention of the scripture. And uh although I've heard people use this one in my life talking about masturbation, Jesus was not talking about masturbation when he was talking about that specific thing. And so um, you know, I've heard people say, well, then I just I'd be loved to like people are just they use kind of these things inappropriate. Like, but the the Bible does give us guidelines to make good decisions in life, and I think when it comes to this kind of hot button issue for people of is masturbation a sin, we can kind of filter through some of those. Uh like 1 Corinthians 10 31, which says to So whatever the whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Um we are supposed to be living in a way that everything we do brings glory to God. Masturbation does not bring glory to God, it brings pleasure to ourselves, often fulfilling uh undesirable pleasures or illicit pleasures that go against honoring the Lord. So those are some things we need to love. Um also, Romans 14.23 says, everything that does not come from faith is sin. So if you're not focused on glorifying God when you're glorifying your own earthly pleasures and desires of the flesh, then it's not glorifying God, so it's sin. So we've got to be careful about that. In 1 Corinthians 6.12, the Bible says, I will not be mastered by anything. That's a big one we talk about with making decisions. So Christians should avoid anything that might slave them. Masturbation is something that becomes addictive because of the dopamine release when someone's having an orgasm that that creates you to be addicted to that thing, that um idea, that pornography, that video, whatever you're watching, whatever you're doing that's causing you to have that sin, uh, it causes you to be masturbed. And we literally we have people who are in recovery from the addiction and masturbation. We counsel people through it, like it's a it's problematic, it creates all kinds of late late life problems, it creates all kinds of relationship problems, marriage problems, health problems, so people have to be aware of some of those things. We as pastors we hear this sometimes, well, isn't that better than me just going and having sex with all these people because I can't control it? No. We're never in a place where a lesser so there is no idea of this the lesser sin is a lesser sincer problem. Like sin is sin. Like, and we're supposed to flee from sin at all at all turns, we're supposed to flee from sin, flee from sexual immorality. And when we talk about masturbation, it is sexual immorality. But it what it is, what it functioned as, is a an outlet for lust. And when there's a big difference between lust and desire within marriage, those are very clearly different things. Lust is a sin, it's always a sin. Lust is a sin. It's the gratification of the flesh flesh in a way that isn't uh isn't acknowledged or honored uh honoring to the Lord. And when uh when we do those things, yes, that that is something that that falls outside of it. So um but you know, when we talk about lust as a whole, uh I I remember a youth pastor telling all the kids uh in our youth group when it's growing up that you can't masturbate without lusting. So guess what? You're always gonna masturbation's always gonna be the same. Yeah. Um another one not biblical is we have Galatians 5, 22 22 and 23, which are the fruits of spirit. One of those fruits of spirit is self-control, and the ability to control your bodily urges and needs and desires for lusting for earthly pleasures is a self-control issue. If you can't control your urge, your you know hormones, then you know you're having it's a sin issue. And so when you take all this into account and you can't, you know, self-deny s those self-gratification things, it becomes a real problem. And so, I mean, there's always people who argue about whole life, oh you can I mean technically most devotion could not be a sin. If you can do it without any of those other things, which would be impossible for really human beings to have no lust in the heart, no moral thoughts, no pornography, no self-gratification of flux, of the false full assurance that it's good and right, and you're giving things to God while doing it, maybe you could make that argument. But the reality is you can't. That's impossible to make the argument. People try to find any way to excuse sin to be sin. And the reality is we said they'll tell us that. I can do it without sinning. I don't know, you do us. Like I okay, like in the reality of that, break that can you? Can you? And and if you if if for some if by some miraculous way you can do that, then uh I don't believe you. So like yeah, so like it and and what are you inviting by uh incorporating that in your life? And and you may be able to accomplish that once or twice, but the idea that you'd be able to do that in in regular uh in a regular way and not invite sin in your life, I I'm sorry, just I think it's it's advised, it's unwise, and it's just unwilling that is gonna lead to sin. So it may even be permissible. It may even be beneficial, but you are definitely gonna be mastered by it. I would say that it's not beneficial. I would say it's not and and according to scripture, it's really not permissible. I don't think it's permissible, I don't think it's beneficial. I think you will be mastered by it. I think that's the danger of it. Masturbation is not God's design for sexual expression. Marriage and covenant is. God made us to live in a covenant relationship with himself and to exemplify that covenant, he he gave us the institution of marriage to show the world what that covenant looks like lived out, and so that's where sexual gratification is supposed to be, and that's the proper place for that. So I I I know it's hard, we're we're men, it's hard to resist those earthly urges, but that's the part of being self-control and giving over the desires of the flesh to the Lord for prayer, for reflection, for his leading, for his peace, his comfort through those times, and waiting on his time for when you'll have that covenant relationship. Let's let's break down the thing that is after the question about masturbation, right? It's if you're stuck in a a cycle of masturbation, shame, guilt. Like, what you need to understand is that people who are in faith, when we when we confess those things to them, they they don't respond the way that we in our heads think they want to. Right? I uh nobody has ever confessed that to any of us, and we've gone, you horrible, terrible struggle. But personnel we got like, hey, do we get all it's a real struggle for all people? It's a real struggle. 77% of men and 50% of women in the church masturbate. That's the statistics that they we've seen now. I think it's about even higher higher than 70% alpha men. Exactly. It's so available at all generations because of cell phones and devices and computers. Like it's a real problem, and and it's a real problem for the church because it's a secret sin that people are ashamed of, they don't want to talk about. But the reality is it's something you've got to work through to f to to be your best for the Lord and to make sure that your body, your desires, your heart, your mind is honoring him. You're not looking at somebody with lust in your heart, um, which, you know, the Bible says is akin to adultery, but you're really focused your heart on the Lord and what he has for you and have self-control over your actions, your attitude, and your behavior when it comes to this. So if it's a struggle for you, understand this is a struggle that we've all walked through in different ways in different times in our lives. It's it's a real struggle for both men and women. It's a real struggle for our teenagers, our children and adults at all levels, um, of being married or being divorced or being widowed. This is a real struggle. And if you need help with this, this is what the church is here for. We can we can talk about this. I talk about this a lot with people in counseling, especially men, about the struggle of this, how it's how it's defeating themselves, their their their psyche, it's destroying their relationships, and how can you can walk yourself back to a healthier place. And just let me promise you, God can help you through this. You can get through this, you can get a plan. The best advice is just talk to somebody about it and say, hey, I I'm stuck in this problem, I want to get through it, but I need help. There's a lot of great resources out there, like covenant eyes and other things. And so if this was a struggle for you, whether you're a man or a woman, I my best advice if you're willing to talk to other women in church and that struggle have walked through the struggle and had success, um, we could definitely try to help connect you with some if that's your struggle. Um, but feel free to reach out and know that we don't have to be ashamed. We just have to move forward making better decisions to live for Christ, to have self-control, and to find our uh passion fulfilled in Jesus. Thanks for listening.