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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | 2 followups, masturbation and 1Cor7:2-5 | Bible general Archive 1 | Makarios | 46165 | ||
Greetings Parable, You say, "..this verse doesn't help someone if they are in fact looking to the Bible to understand what is the good they ought to do, as is the point of the original question about masturbation." My response: Oh yes it does! You stated, "Remarkably, your question about how I "honestly feel" makes my point for me. We are not to interpret scripture in terms of our feelings, rather we are to interpret our feelings in terms of scripture." My response: That is great! However, I would still direct you to 1 Thess. 4:3-7. You stated, "I'm not saying God blesses acts of masturbation, and I'm not saying he curses them either." My response: Please read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. Your body is not your own to do with as you please! You have been bought with a price. And also, to use 1 Cor. 7 to justify masturbation is a blatant attempt to misapply Scripture to justify a sinful act. Do you worship and idolize your wife in such a way that you misuse your own body parts for her glorification? Or is it simply the indulgment of sinful flesh? Paul never even hints at attempting to justify masturbation in anything that he wrote. I interpret 1 Cor. 7 as saying that sexual relations have their proper expression in marriage, and that the husband and wife should not deprive each other from themselves. Many men who I have known have fallen prey to the sin of masturbation, only to see their marriages falter and their sins multiplied into pornography.. Such disgusting consequences of a "seemingly" harmless or unnoticable sin are brought out into the open when the door to that sin has been crossed and, now, other sins, such as looking at other women besides your wife, now suddenly become much more desirable to you than before. Do you truly see no harm in it? Do you have no inclination or leading to give it up? Can you honestly say that you have experienced great spiritual growth while practicing masturbation? Masturbation is not wholesome, not edifying, not healthy to your marriage, and it is certainly not something that you want on your conscience as not being 'repented of' when you have to give an account of yourself to the Lord. We are called to both purity and holiness! And masturbation cannot serve to support either one of those two virtues. Masturbation is a sin that hinders our spiritual walk with Christ, and it should be repented of if practiced, and avoided if ever brought into question. But you say, "But the Bible doesn't give me a specific verse that says: "Thou shalt not Masturbate!" Does the Bible need to mention every single dirty deed that man can innovate so that we should know whether to abstain from it or not? I do not believe that the Bible should do so, since we already know how we must live, and we will not have any excuses for that which has clearly been given and revealed to us, which is the Holy Spirit! And the Holy Spirit clearly signifies and leads me to believe that masturbation is a sin! I believe that masturbation should have absolutely no part in the life of a Christian, whether they are married or single. I appreciate your comments about my posts and my insights, and I hope that I have not come across as 'argumentative' or condescending. But I have written here about how I honestly perceive the subject of masturbation, and I believe that it will prove very costly to your marriage if not discontinued, my friend and brother in Christ. Just a few weeks ago, the youth pastor of our church got up in front of the entire congregation and confessed to his sin of masturbation, and we have begun an accountability group that consists of myself and several others, to keep this dear friend and brother in the Lord on 'the cutting edge' of his spiritual relationship with God. Also, his wife is very supportive of helping her husband deal with this problem, which is a great blessing! I will close this post by offering you a couple of Scriptures that I believe speak to this very subject: Romans 12:1, Romans 12:2 Blessings to you, Makarios |
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2 | 2 followups, masturbation and 1Cor7:2-5 | Bible general Archive 1 | Biynah | 46168 | ||
Contrary to the opinion of Makarios I must submit my response. Masterbation is not a sin. The Bible never calls it a sin. If anyone calls it a sin he adds to God's word. And we ought to be careful not to do that. In the sight of Makarios, not God, masturbation is sinful. If it were sinful then God would have specifically told us so. Would he omit that if it was something we could be damned for. Of course not. Does God leave it up to us to decide what is sin or not? Of course not. But There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it 1 Corinthians 10:13. Now it is a sin to fornicate. But God provided us an escape from fornication and that is masturbation. Would God have given us so great a sex drive if we could not bear the temptation. And indeed that temptation could be unbearable if it were not for our ability to release the pressure on our bodies by masturbation. Masturbation is not a sin. There are enough sins for us to avoid without us making up more sins to deal with. But this we know, "If any man thinks it a sin and then does it ... for him it is a sin" Paul says this somewhere. Now masturbation in connection with pornography adds the element of lust -- which is a sin. But masturbation soley for the relief of sexual frustration is not a sin. |
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3 | 2 followups, masturbation and 1Cor7:2-5 | Bible general Archive 1 | Makarios | 46179 | ||
Sorry Biynah, But you are misled here. How do you interpret 1 Cor. 6:12-20 or 1 Thess. 4:3-7? Also, how do you interpret Matthew 5:27-30? Or is it better for me not to ask? Is there anyone here on this StudyBibleForum who is led by or controlled by the Holy Spirit? Is there anyone here who knows what it means to follow in pursuit of God? Is there anyone who desires or seeks a life of holiness and purity? Do all seek to justify sin in wake of what Scripture clearly states? No, you will not find a verse in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt not masturbate." However, you will find many ordinances and pronouncements against sexual immorality, and how anyone can divorce masturbation from sexual immorality is beyond any spiritual explanation or leap in logic that I can think of! There is no separation of the two. Masturbation is sexual immorality, and it should be repented of! If they had a word for "masturbation" in the time of Moses or of the Gospel writers, then I believe that they would have most definitely included that into the Bible for our instruction! However, we use this transparent fallacy for justification, when the Bible clearly spells it out by using "sexual immorality" or "fornication" for what we know today as "masturbation." And I believe that I have sufficiently proven through Scripture that by describing masturbation as a sin is not my own invention, but that which was given to us by God Himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Blessings to you, Makarios |
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4 | 2 followups, masturbation and 1Cor7:2-5 | Bible general Archive 1 | Biynah | 46239 | ||
Dear Makarios: Masturbation is certainly nothing new. And of course they had a word for it back then. Yes, sexual immorality is considered sin in the Bible. But the immorality is always mentioned between two participants -- homosexuals, man and animal, adultery, whoredom, etc. The Bible never mentions anything about masturbation. I would say that your personal bias lends to your strong point of view on this. But we should all be very careful about adding to God's Word. Which of us have the mind of God that we can fill in the blanks for Him? If He didn't say it -- we can't say that He did. Many false doctrines abound on filling in those blanks and taking scripture out of context. The Bible says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Each of us are on this path. And where God is silent on certain issues we must decide for ourselves if it is pleasing to Him or not -- or if it is a personal matter that God gives us liberty in deciding for ourselves. Paul addressed this when he spoke of eating meats that were sacrificed to idols. For those who believed it was sin -- to him it was sin. For those who exercised liberty -- to him it was permitted. This my friend is one of those issues. If it is sin to you -- indeed it is sin to you. But if our brother who posed the question has liberty in this thing -- then we should not cause him to fall because of our personal feelings. You have offered no scripture that proves God meant or inferred that masturbation is a sin or sexual immorality -- although it is clear that you strongly feel in yourself that it is. You cannot rationally link masturbation to sexual immorality -- it involves no other person. But it basically boils down to what Paul was asked about eating meat sacrificed to idols. This appears to some men to be sin. To others it appears to be no problem at all. So this to is an individual issue. If you are convicted that this is sin then it is sin for you. But to our friend who sees nothing wrong with it -- should we undermine his faith and perhaps cause him to err? I appreciate your answer to my comment. I was hoping that you would answer. And I accept your position as being right for you. But I think too, that the Holy Spirit will guide our brother into the path that he should go. He now has two opinions. I hope that he is edified in what we have shared with him. And I hope to hear from you again. I only check into this forum on Fri, Sat, and Sun. So be patient in hearing from me if you still wish to challenge this position. |
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5 | 2 followups, masturbation and 1Cor7:2-5 | Bible general Archive 1 | Makarios | 46280 | ||
Greetings Biynah, 1 Corinthians 6:18 states, "Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body." I believe that this verse is a strong rebuke against masturbation as well as other kinds of sin that one may do with the body. In masturbation, you are giving into the desires of sinful human flesh. Is that what Joseph did when confronted with the advances of Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:12)? No, Joseph fled from that desire! And so should we, who call ourselves "Christians." Without getting verbally descriptive to the point of where my text would become "unbecoming" to the Christian audience of whom this Forum is put on display for, I will give you a description of the folly of masturbation from Proverbs 5:15-23. Masturbation leads to adultery, which leads to death. The sin that leads one to masturbate will result in spiritual death (Proverbs 7:23)! But I will let the imagery of death and sensual desire rest there, since I will not stoop to the level of letting one of my own posts become censured. "Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths. For many are the victims she has cast down, and numerous are all her slain. Her house is the way to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death." [Proverbs 7:25-27] We should not be so easily enticed by sin! Continence is the alternative to living this sinful way of life, and if one continues to "burn with passion" (1 Cor. 7:9) then that person should marry, since masturbation is a perversion of what should take place in the marriage relationship, exclusive to the marriage relationship. "Burn with passion" in 1 Cor. 7:9 also does not mean 'masturbation' or justify masturbation, since Paul is clearly stating that a person cannot live a happy life and serve the Lord effectively if dominated by unfulfilled sexual passion! Matthew 5:27-30 states that we should rid ourselves of that which hinders our spiritual walk with Christ! If our sexual passions hinder our spiritual walk, then they must go! Christ says in verse 28, "but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Just what did Christ mean by "committed adultery with her in his heart"? This is a willful, calculated stare that arouses a sexual desire within a man. And that temptation can be "turned down" or not acted upon. We are not slaves to our own bodies or to our own sinful nature! We can resist, we have been released from the bondage of sin and death, and we can have mastery over our sexual desires. Masturbation is indeed a choice, and the wrong one at that! Anyone who has fallen prey to the sin of masturbation must repent of it, and vow to keep a clear conscience, so that they can save that part of themselves for their spouse and only their spouse, since marriage is why God gave us these desires in the first place. Masturbation is nothing short of a perversion against your own body! (1 Cor. 6:18) If you masturbate during a marriage relationship, and you and your wife are "one flesh" in a marriage relationship, then not only are you committing a sin against yourself and the Holy Spirit (if you call yourself a Christian), but you are also committing a sin against your wife. You have dishonored yourself and your body to the point of shame! And your wife also bears that shame with you, since you have enacted a sinful sex act without the consent or presence of your wife. All of your sexual desire should be for your wife, and her only, and it should only be carried out with her and for the consummation of the marriage relationship. Anything else is sin! "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." [1 Cor. 7:4] And if you are single and you masturbate, then you are violating your body in the presence of the Holy Spirit (if you call yourself a Christian). You are committing an act of sin that will be carried over into a possible future marriage relationship if not repented and forsaken of! So, if we are either married or single, the Scriptural position is clearly against the act of masturbation. And all Christians should see clearly that this is indeed a sin that should be repented of and avoided. Biynah, please feel free to respond if you have anything else that you would like to add. I have offered a good amount of Scripture in all of my posts that serve to refute the sinful practice of masturbation, in which the Bible clearly tells us not to enact upon. Blessings to you, Makarios |
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6 | What about early male puberty? | Bible general Archive 1 | CalvinisticSouthernBaptist | 46320 | ||
On this issue, especially for males, according to surveys almost all, if not all, males have participated in this act. And it often(maybe always) occurs as one enters puberty before one even understands what is going on with this act. Do you consider it a sin at that point when it happens quite naturally without intent or do you consider it a sin once the person becomes aware of what it is he is engaging in? | ||||||
7 | What about early male puberty? | Bible general Archive 1 | Makarios | 46372 | ||
Greetings CalvinisticSouthernBaptist! I personally know of a few exceptions to those 'surveys'! And they are hard to find in today's age. Yes, I believe that all masturbation, even if done "unwittingly" (however you define that), is a sin. However, what the body does naturally, and not with the help of our sinful nature, I do not see that as sin, as long as we act responsibly and with integrity. Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible for a man not to masturbate. It is possible for a young man not to succumb to masturbation. And if there is a better, wholesome way of living our lives and a chance of being in an even closer walk with our Lord, then we must strive for it, whatever the "sacrifice"! :-) Believe me, there is freedom from the 'slavery' of sexual sin, and you will become very strong and blessed in Him if you can master it! But the only way to do this is to be immersed in His will, and to fill yourself with Scripture and with Him and to have your mind "renewed" (Romans 12:1-2) constantly! Blessings to you, Makarios |
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