Last updated on March 8, 2025
Question:
Regarding the article, “I’m still confused about masturbation. Is it right or wrong? My question is when would it not be lust, that is, how frequent it would be and not be a sin? I’m asking to clarify because everything else is clear to me.
Best regards.
Answer:
Let us first clarify what lust is. Lust is when you want something so badly that you are willing to consider sinning to get it. Thus, imagining yourself having sex with someone you are not married to would be lust. Planning out ways to get a girl to let you have sex with her would also be lust. It is wrong because you are mentally accepting sinful behavior.
Therefore, it isn’t a matter of how often you masturbate. It is more about why you are masturbating. If you are bored and start daydreaming about sinning to get yourself aroused enough to ejaculate, then you are sinning through lust. If your body is demanding relief and your mind keeps drifting toward sexual ideas, so you masturbate to reduce your urges, that would not be necessarily wrong.
Question:
I appreciate it.
I want to ask if doing it every day is wrong. That is what I feel my body asks of me. Maybe it is because of my age, as not long ago I did it and the next day I felt like doing it again. Would doing it again be wrong?
Answer:
During adolescence, many boys find themselves needing to ejaculate often. This should calm down when you are in your twenties. So long as you are masturbating because you have a need and not because you are bored and wanting to chase the pleasure. There will be times when the need will be intense, and you might have to ejaculate daily or twice a day. At other times, you won’t need to ejaculate for several days. These variations are normal.
Question:
So that’s not lust, right, since it’s something that the body asks for. Okay. Thank you again.
Answer:
Correct. Lust is your thoughts about a matter. Your body wants to ejaculate when your seminal vesicles get full. Your body doesn’t care how it is done, just so long as it gets relief. Your mind comes up with ways that you could ejaculate, but most of the ideas are inappropriate. You have to eliminate the wrong ideas from the acceptable ones. However, if you focus on the inappropriate ones, thinking about them all the time and imagining ways you could get away with sinning, then you are lusting. Lusting is wrong because it accepts sinful ideas, and eventually, it will lead to sinful behavior.
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man” (Mark 7:21-23).
It isn’t about how often you do something. The danger in masturbating when there is no need is that the body doesn’t have enough drive to push you into orgasm, so there is a temptation to increase the drive by focusing on sexual sins either in what you watch or what you think about. Thus, chasing the pleasure caused by ejaculating can lead you into lust to get the orgasm to happen.
Therefore, if you feel like masturbating and it isn’t easily happening, then you are trying too soon. Wait until the urge to ejaculate rises higher. Not only will you ejaculate easily, but it will also be more intense and pleasurable. Conversely, don’t put it off so long that you lose your self-control because instinct takes over your body. You’ll have to find a balance that works for you.