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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
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 9:E-44
...n the midst of the Church. As He stands there revealing Who He is in this last age, He calls Himself the "Author of the creation of God". This is ANOTHER CREATION. This has to do with the church. This is a special designation of Himself. He is the CREATOR of that church. The heavenly Bridegroom created his own bride. As the Spirit of God, He came down and created in the virgin Mary the cells from which His body was born. I want to repeat that. He created the very cells in the womb of Mary for that body. It was not...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 9:E-81
"Buy of Me, gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich." Now these people had plenty of gold, but it was the wrong kind. It was that gold that bought men's lives and destroyed them. It was the gold that warped and twisted human character, for its love was the root of all evil. Revelation 18:1-14, "And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen...
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...