What does the Bible say about masturbation? The word masturbation itself is never mentioned in the Bible.
Perhaps the bigger issue to consider is does masturbation lead to sexual immorality? But we have to be clear on what sexual immorality is. Here are some verses to review on sexual immorality.
Sexual Immorality Verses
Mat 19:9 – “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Mar 7:21 – “For from within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery,
John 8:41 – “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born as a result of sexual immorality; we have one Father: God.”
Act 15:20 – “but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, from acts of sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.”
Act 15:29 – “that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from acts of sexual immorality; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”
Act 21:25 – “But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we sent a letter, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
1Co 6:13 – “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will do away with both of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.”
1Co 6:18 – “Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
1Co 10:8 – “Nor are we to commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”
2Co 12:21 – “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and indecent behavior which they have practiced.”
Gal 5:19 – “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior,”
Eph 5:3 – “But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints;”
Col 3:5 – “Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”
1Th 4:3 – “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;”
Rev 2:14 – “But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.”
Rev 2:20 – ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”
Rev 2:21 – “I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality.”
Rev 9:21 – “and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their witchcraft, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.”
Rev 14:8 – “And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
Rev 17:4 – “The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, holding in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her sexual immorality,”
Rev 18:3 – “For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich from the excessive wealth of her luxury.”
Rev 18:9 – “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of sexual immorality and lived luxuriously with her, will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke of her burning,”
Rev 19:2 – “BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.”
Greek Translation of Sexual Immorality
Biblical scholars generally agree that the New Testament was originally written in Greek. Porneia is the Greek word that the term “sexual immorality” was translated from.
According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, it means illicit sexual intercourse, referring to adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals, intercourse with close relatives, intercourse with a divorced man or woman. It can also metaphorically mean the worship of idols.
The act of masturbation is not mentioned here. Nonetheless, one can end up engaging in sexual immorality in the process of masturbating.
A good verse to review is Matthew 5:28. It states, “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.”
Greek Translation of Lust
Lust is translated from the Greek word epithymeō. It means to set the heart upon, covet, desire, would fain, of those who seek things forbidden. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon notes that in the above verse, it refers to sexual desire. It would make sense given that adultery is mentioned here.
The Greek word adultery is translated from is moicheuō, which in this context, means to have unlawful intercourse with another’s wife. One could conclude based on the meanings of both words, one has committed unlawful intercourse with another person’s wife in their heart if they look at a woman with sexual desire.
Men often masturbate to images or videos of women, which means in the process of masturbating, they’re lusting and engaging in sexual immorality.
One thing about verse 28 I was unsure of is if the act of looking at a woman with lust was only referring to looking at married women with lust. The focus of Matthew 5:27-32 seems to center around married couples. Matthew 5:32 states “but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery”
But I suspect if the purpose of Jesus speaking these words was to have married couples maintain sexual morality with each other, it wouldn’t matter whether the woman lusted after was married or not married.
Nonetheless, without any lust occurring, is any sin happening? Is masturbation in and of itself a sin? There’s no verse that appears to conclude that it is.
But maybe the bigger issue isn’t whether masturbation is a sin, but what reflects sexual morality according to scripture?
1 Corinthians 7:1-5
“Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise the wife also to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise the husband also does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
According to this verse, in order to avoid Satan tempting us into sexual immorality because of our lack of self control, husband and wives must come together (no pun intended), and fulfill their duty to each other. Given sexual immorality is being touched on here, one could presume that duty is husbands and wives having sex with each other. Additionally, because this duty is mentioned in contrast to sexual immorality, it seems we can conclude that it reflects sexual morality.
While masturbation in and of itself may not be sinful, it’s not the standard which God presents to us in scripture for being sexually moral. In honoring God, ideally, our sexual pleasure should be exercised through marriage.
If there’s a moment you find your sexual desires lead you to begin pleasuring yourself, at the very least, you should avoid lusting while doing it. But if you think about it, if you strive to avoid lusting after any person, it’s likely you’ll avoid masturbating as well.
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