Masturbation - Is It a Sin According to the Bible?
1) Direct answer
Yes. Even if the Bible does not name the act by that word, masturbation springs from lust and uncleanness, and that is sin.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Jesus traced adultery to the heart: “Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Masturbation feeds on lustful thoughts; that’s where it lives.
- The works of the flesh include “uncleanness” and “lasciviousness” (Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5). Self-gratification driven by lust falls right there.
- “Flee fornication… your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost… glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). You can’t glorify God by indulging lust.
- God’s provision for sexual desire is honorable marriage, not self-pleasure: “To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife… defraud ye not one the other…” (1 Corinthians 7:2-5; see also Hebrews 13:4). If desire burns, the Bible says marry (1 Corinthians 7:9), not turn inward to lust.
- We’re commanded to “abstain from fleshly lusts” (1 Peter 2:11), “make a covenant with our eyes” (Job 31:1), “walk in the Spirit” so we “shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16), and “mortify… fornication, uncleanness” (Colossians 3:5).
- A simple test: “Whatever you do… do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” and “to the glory of God” (Colossians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31). Can this be done unto the Lord? If not, it’s sin (James 4:17).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Now notice: God made sexual union for covenant, love, and life within marriage. Masturbation turns it inward, feeds fantasy, and strengthens the rule of the flesh—not the Spirit.
- Some say it’s harmless or “normal.” But the Bible doesn’t measure by culture; it measures by holiness, self-control, and a clean heart. Lust in the heart is where God looks, and that’s exactly what this act requires.
- It’s not three standards—one for mind, one for body, one for spirit. It’s one life. If the thought is sinful, the act it fuels is unclean.
4) Hope and victory
- There is cleansing: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us…and to cleanse us” (1 John 1:9).
- Walk it out:
- Repent—turn from lust and renounce it in Jesus’ Name.
- Cut off the feeders: pornography, suggestive media, idle scrolling (Matthew 5:29-30).
- Fill your heart with the Word and prayer; walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).
- Discipline the body: fasting, honest accountability, purposeful work (1 Corinthians 9:27).
- Pursue God’s order: purity in singleness; fidelity and mutual care in marriage (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5; 1 Corinthians 7:3-5).
- If you stumble, don’t hide—run to the Lord, rise again, and keep walking.
You see, God calls us to holiness—not bondage to the flesh. Jesus cleanses, the Holy Spirit empowers, and the Word renews the mind. Live clean; live filled; live free.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-119
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An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 4:E-114
Now I realize that it is going to be confusing for a moment here, as most people know that I was ordained a Baptist preacher and I have steadfastly declared that the Baptists have missed it for saying you receive the Holy Ghost WHEN you believe, for that is not so. You receive Him "SINCE you believed." Acts 19:2-6. "He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-39
"These things saith the Faithful and True Witness." Now I want to show you what I find in the thought of "faithful". You know we often talk about a great unchanging God, Whose Word does not change. And when we speak of Him after that manner we often get a view of Him that makes Him seem very impersonal. It is as though God made the whole universe and all the laws that pertain to it and then stood back and became a great impersonal God. It is as though God made a way of salvation for lost mankind, that way being the...