Last updated on July 26, 2023
Question:
Hi,
I wrote to you a while back, scared to masturbate. I got to the point where I felt like I was going to explode and my erections were causing me pain. I finally did it and did not lust nor did I watch porn. It actually has made me not have sexual thoughts. I feel like God understands and is glad that I have found a way to stop those other sins. Do you think He understands? Or do you think he is disappointed in me?
Answer:
Why would God be disappointed when you didn’t do anything wrong? There is no passage stating that masturbation is wrong. There are passages that state that lust and pornography are wrong, such as I Thessalonians 4:3-5, but you didn’t indulge in these. There are passages where God treats ejaculating as equivalent to a woman’s menstrual period (Leviticus 15:16-20). Under the Old Law, it made the man unclean for a day, but being unclean was not a sin. Everyone spent some time being unclean under the rules of the Old Law.
You are correct, ejaculating does lower your sexual drive for a while (until your semen levels rise again). Since you had put off ejaculating for so long, it will likely rise again fairly quickly. This is because each ejaculation doesn’t fully empty your seminal vesicles. You relieved the pressure but didn’t take the levels down a lot. That is alright. When the urge to ejaculate gets strong again, you can masturbate again. What you want to do is avoid masturbating simply because you want the pleasurable feelings that come with orgasm. This can lead to strong temptations to stimulate yourself with lust and pornography just so you can masturbate. Simply understand that the need will eventually return and you can take care of it at that point.
What it comes down to is exercising self-control by managing your body instead of letting your body and its feelings control you. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
God designed your body and a part of the male design is the need to ejaculate when the seminal vesicles get full. God is not against using your body as designed. He is against people using their bodies contrary to their intended purposes in order to sin.