Sexual intimacy within marriage is a beautiful gift from God. It’s an outlet for play and passion, and it nurtures closeness with your spouse, supplying a unique context for giving and receiving love. But as with all God’s good gifts (1 Timothy 4:4), the devil seeks “to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). His perversions are deeply grieving, and the scars can be lasting.
What does God say about masturbation? Here are ten reasons to resist the temptation with all your might.
- Raising up godly offspring is a primary way to make disciples. Masturbation belittles God’s passion for global praise.
- God purposed that all righteous forms of sexual expression be for the marriage bed. Masturbation removes sexual expression from its only God-intended context.
- Preserving sexual expression for the marriage bed nurtures intimacy and a heart of service for one’s spouse. Masturbation undermines both.
- Sexual intimacy between a husband and wife points to the love between Christ and his church. Those who substitute masturbation for marital intimacy undervalue God’s glory.
- Masturbation outside the marriage bed does not glorify God because evil desire always fuels it.
- Jesus urged his followers to guard themselves from lustful masturbation, and Paul called Christians to control their sexual parts in holiness and honor.
- Paul declares that the answer to sexual desire is either the marriage bed or self-control, not masturbation.
- Masturbation outside the marriage bed witnesses a lack of self-control and is therefore sin.
- Forsaking the sin of masturbating can nurture greater God-dependence.
- One’s thoughts and actions display what one treasures. It’s impossible to say, “Follow me in masturbation as I follow Christ.”
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