Can You Glorify God When You Masturbate and/or Watch Porn?
There’s much controversy whether or not masturbation is wrong. My question to you is can you glorify God while masturbating since we are told to glorify the Lord in all that we do? Can you masturbate and not have sexual images dancing in your mind? I doubt you can do either. Can you masturbate without lusting since lusting is sin? Do you want to live for the Lord completely, be set apart, and holy while walking in the Spirit, or do you want to compromise with the flesh and its pleasures? Let’s explore this a bit since I have heard that masturbating and watching porn is becoming more common among women now.
In Romans 1, we are told these things about the progression of sin: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature” (Romans 1:26). Women’s natural use of their body is to have sex with a man (her husband by God’s design), then bear and nurse children. Wanting to fornicate with another woman and not wanting children is against the natural use of one’s body.
When I have written about the problems with pornography, I refer to men’s problem with it since I hear from a lot of women whose husbands are addicted to it. Yet, I have had a few women tell me about their addictions and with the popularity of “Fifty Shades of Gray,” we can see that this is a sin issue with women too. Women are given up to vile, depraved, and inordinate affections if they don’t have the self-discipline to say “no” to their flesh and “yes” to righteousness.
We live in a highly sexualized culture. Innocence is stolen from most children at early ages through TV, movies, music, the Internet, sexual abuse, school, and so on. Now, they’re being asked in elementary school if they want to be a boy or girl and before long, pedophilia will be accepted as normal. (You don’t believe me? Just a few years ago, the state of California voted against same sex marriage!) Children are even being taught how to masturbate from a young age in some country’s schools and taught that pornography is good.
I just finished reading a book recently called “Unseduced and Unshaken” by Rosalie de Rosset. It had some great truths in it. There are some things I very much disagree with the author, such as women having a voice in church leadership and things of this nature so I wouldn’t recommend it but, in a few areas, great truths are taught.
Here are a few great excerpts on the issues of pornography and masturbation:
“The lust of the eyes that feeds on Internet pornography does not inflame but rather freezes the souls and heart in a cold indifference to the human dignity of others and of oneself.” Porn is short term pleasure for long term pain. Don’t awaken sexual desire before marriage, young women! Don’t read popular, explicit romance novels or watch shows like “The Bachelor.” Don’t look at the popular teen magazines. Dwell on the lovely and the good instead. Be holy in both body and spirit as God has commanded you to be. The less regrets you make in your youth, the better your future will be. God commands that you flee from youthful lusts since He knows how much they will come back to haunt you later. He wants you free from sin and the bondage and entanglement that it brings.
“While perspectives vary, masturbation is not a healthy practice as it teaches that immediate gratification is part of sex and removes sex from the context of relationship rendering it an immature and lonely engagement…Chastity again would call us to total abstinence.” Sex was created for marriage. Period. Young women are called to be chaste. This will bring glory to God, and it’s His perfect will for you.
“Honesty and discipline are required of us in order to live healthy and holy Christian lives, disciplines best practiced in community with accountability.”
God tells us to be wise unto that which is good, and innocent unto that which is evil. Parents must be guardians of their children’s souls. This is why I am such a big advocate of mothers being home full time and homeschooling their children. Satan prowls about like a roaring lion looking whom he may devour. Children needs parents who stand against the evil tide of our culture and protect their children while teaching them all about the Lord and His ways.
As you train and discipline your children when they are young, you are teaching them to grow up to have self-control and be disciplined. It is a gift you give your children. We watched too many parents not discipline their children properly and their children and the parents have paid terrible consequences for their failure. It’s not worth it to lack diligence in this important time in your children’s lives. Teaching your children to be disciplined will benefit them their entire lives.
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:31
14 thoughts on “Can You Glorify God When You Masturbate and/or Watch Porn?”
Thank you , Lori, for continuing to fight the good fight on behalf of younger women. Your statement, “The less regrets you make in your youth, the better your future will be.” is like the scripture commanding us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth. We can’t go back and undo the past; every bad choice comes with consequences. I was also encouraged by your husband’s post yesterday. We don’t have any perfect teachers, but God can and does redeem the years the locusts have eaten when we come to Him in repentance and humility. Thank you again for being so honest and transparent about your lives and pointing others to Christ and Biblical womanhood through the Word.
Quote = Wanting to fornicate with another woman
Being 59yrs old, sadly I hear this too regularly from women.
Younger women openly talk about having sex with other women.
Older women in my age range of 50-60yr old will admit to at least sexually kissing or touching other women during their lifetime. Some of the older women even admit to more than just touching.
Then they expect me to be overjoyed at hearing that.
Quote = and with the popularity of “Fifty Shades of Gray,”
I had never heard of “50 shades of gray” until a year ago. (I’m just a dumb ole country boy.)
But after learning what it was about, that explains why women seem to prefer to being with a guy who is “rough” with them and treats her like dirt.
I agree with most everything you wrote, however, I think there is different gravity that should ne ascribed to different sins when it comes to sins connected to sexuality. I don’t think this aspect of the issue is emphasized enough. While definately both masturbation and porn are sins, I would argue porn is a greater sin, as it involves exploitation of other people. Masturbation only causes harm to yourself and your relationship with God; it definately should be avoided at all cost but I personally would be somewhat less horrified if my husband or son (or daughter, as that is what the post is about) admitted to masturbation than looking at porn. (As I would be less horrified if my husband admitted to watching porn than if he admitted to hiring a prostitute.)
Why some women are attracted to “bad boys” baffles me also. I think women brag out being with another women to excite a man, proving just how “adventurous” they are – it’s sad. Funny story about 50 Shades of Gray…my church held a rummage sale a few years ago, someone donated the complete series (I’ve heard of the books and movies, but haven’t seen any nor do I desire to), our pastor’s wife purchased them. She saw the title, having never heard of the books/movies either; she thought the book was about aging. It was quite funny when she realized what the true meaning of the book was.
The fact that pop culture calls men who want stay-at-home submissive wives abusive but does not seem to notice how 50 Shades of Grey promotes domestic abuse (on so many other levels, as well, not just in terms of sexual practices described) baffles me.
Lori – You are right with your prediction about pediophilia becoming accepted by society eventually. I saw something on Facebook the other day about a Ted Talk a woman in Germany did about pediophilia being a “legitimate sexual orientation” and “worthy of acceptance”. I was so horrified. How can any kind of “sexual orientation” where one of the people is a child, possibly ever be okay??? This world has gone insane 🙁
I read a recent blog post from Biblical Gender Roles that is semi-related to this subject. BGR argued that women should masturbate to figure out how their husbands can truly please them during sex.
“You are not going to ever truly enjoy sex with your husband until you understand how your body works. Yes this might mean going against traditional church teachings against masturbation but if you don’t understand how your body works, you can’t expect your husband to just figure it out for you. He may stumble upon things that work for you, but you can’t depend on that.”
https://biblicalsexology.com/2020/06/21/why-christian-wives-should-fake-it/
Yeah, I disagree with this advice. A husband and wife learn together what pleases each other.
Yeah all sexual acts need to be done together in marriage. You guys discover things together and see what pleases one another.
I agree, but I think a wedding/honeymoon gift of an educational book can help here . . . for men it is often quite obvious what pleases them, while women can have pleasureless sex for years and years because their husband/they never figure out the anatomy God gave them. There are many Christian books for married couples that can explain.
One word answer to the title question of this post: no.
One of my childhood friends grew up with a guilt of masturbating and only told me about it within the last year. she had felt it was wrong but she had started it at such a young age that she didn’t really even understand what it was and didn’t tell anyone about it for a very long time. Her mother told her it wasn’t a big deal when asked about it because “it’s just your body”. From a Christian woman, no less. I don’t know if she’s still engaged with this, (she’s married now and has kids) but it made me so, so sad. it’s also unfortunately been a springboard of her dive into God’s grace covers everything, so it doesn’t matter how she talks, what she wears, etc. God’s grace covers everything. ?
that’s what we do, explore new things to see what each other likes. likes change over the years of marriage.
If you actually read Fifty Shades, you will find that it is, in fact, a story of female dominance. The protagonist gives up everything *he* wants in order to satisfy the woman he marries. I honestly think that is why these books appealed to women. In the story, the woman has all the power.