Last updated on August 28, 2020
Question:
I’m 20 years old. I really like this web site. I found a lot of useful information! For a long time, I thought masturbation was wrong, and I felt guilty because of that. My first time masturbating was when I was 15, and I wasn’t watching pornography or thinking about any girl, I was doing it because I discovered it. Thank you for making things clear. Without your words, I would not have escaped from guilt. I lived for five years with it and it was horrible.
Answer:
One ought to feel guilt over sin, so that there is motivation to not repeat the sin. But Satan can also trap some into feeling guilty over things which are not right or wrong in and of itself. I’ve seen young women trapped by feeling guilty for eating. They try avoiding the guilt by not eating, but eating is necessary for survival so eventually they give in, but they binge and then feel guilty once again for overeating.
There can be problems with masturbating when pornography or lustful thoughts are used to create sexual excitement, but the sin is in the pornography and lust. The need for males to ejaculate at times is just a part of their physical makeup. Yet, to get someone feeling guilty over something that is going to naturally happen is an ideal spiral for Satan to trap people in.