Masturbation

Dear Victorious,

I know you've written about masturbation before (or at least answered questions about it). I still don't really understand why it's wrong. If the Bible doesn't expressly forbid it, how can anything be defined as wrong?

Victoria L. - Schaumburg, IL

Dear Victoria,

If the Bible doesn't expressly forbid it, how can anything be defined as wrong? That's an excellent question. The only problem with that logic is that it assumes the criteria to be used for doing something is simply the absence of the Bible forbidding it.

Something doesn't have to be defined as wrong - in the Bible or elsewhere - for it to be inappropriate for God's people. Looking at pornography, reading trashy romance novels and watching sarcastic other mean-spirited comedies on TV aren't forbidden in the Bible. But that doesn't make them right. There may be nothing wrong with something, but at the same time ... there may not be anything right with it either. Even if there is something right about it, there may not be enough right about it to make it appropriate.

So let's look at masturbation. There is nothing wrong with the mechanical act of manipulating one's body parts for pleasure. I do the same things when I twiddle my thumbs or stroke my hair. But, masturbation always involves a level of selfishness, often involves a level of lust for someone other than one's committed marriage partner, and may have some other wrongs attached to it.

Similarly, there's nothing wrong with the mechanical act of eating food. But when I eat to excess, it becomes sinful. When I eat for the wrong reasons, it may be sinful. If I eat to the exclusion of others who are hungry, it is sinful. It isn't the eating that's sinful, it's the context in which the eating is done.

Read Philippians 4:8, in the Amplified Bible (found at http://www.biblegateway.org/). More than not being wrong, the things Christ followers engage in should be right enough to meet the requirements of this Bible verse. (And masturbation doesn't.) Moreover, pair that with the greatest commandments (i.e., love God first and love others as you would like to be loved), and you've got excellent criteria for deciding whether something is okay or not.