Last updated on August 24, 2020
Question:
Hi.
I wanted to ask that if you’re single, is it a sin to masturbate and is watching porn a sin?
Answer
In regards to pornography see:
In regards to masturbation see:
Question:
I must admit I did masturbate and watch porn at one point, but I stopped because I started to feel that there was something wrong about it. I guess I just needed some reassurance.
Just for the record, I did check your site but there were quite a lot of articles. You really help a lot of people. Thank you for everything and hopefully, after I repent I will be forgiven (right?).
Answer:
I don’t mind people asking for help locating information. I know there is a lot on the web site, and since I wrote a lot of it or put it on the site I usually know just where to look.
It’s good that your conscience started bothering you regarding pornography. So many young men ignore their own conscience to the point that they burn it out on sin. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:1-2). One day your wife will appreciate your choice to leave pornography behind as well.
I’m always amazed at how many people imagine that God is just waiting for an excuse to throw sinful people out. It is quite the opposite. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). The Lord gives people caught up in sin time to leave their sins behind because that is what He wants from His children. He waits to invite people back in. “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord GOD, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?”” (Ezekiel 18:21-23).
There are actually two sets of instructions regarding forgiveness of sins. Under the Law of Moses in the Old Testament, people were born into God’s nation. They then grew up learning what they needed to do to serve God. Under the Law of Christ it is reversed. You learn what you need to do to be a child of God and then choose to become one.
Sadly, a lot of people have been fooled into thinking they have become a child of God and yet they have not obeyed God’s laws. I put together a chart of passages that tell of God’s requirements for man. See Things that Accompany Salvation. If you move your mouse over the verses, they will pop up in a box, saving you from having to look them up. I don’t know if you done all that God requires of you to become one of His children. If you want to talk about it, you are welcome to give me a call.
If you are a Christian in the true sense, then we must acknowledge that there are times when we all slip up. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (I John 1:8-2:1). All God asks of His children is to admit that we were wrong and then start living righteously again.