Masturbation and Mission

Masturbation is the experience of sexual orgasm produced by self-
stimulation. Virtually every man and almost as many women have tried
it. It is a regular practice of most single men.
One of the major forces preventing young people from obeying the call
of God into vocational Christian service is defeat in the area of lust. A
teenager hears a challenging call to throw himself into the cause of
world evangelization. He feels the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He
tastes the thrill of following the King of kings into battle. But he does
not obey because he is masturbating regularly. He feels guilty. He can
hardly imagine witnessing to a pretty girl about the eternal plight of
her soul, because he has so habitually looked at girls naked in his
imagination. So he feels unworthy and unable to obey the call of God.
Masturbation becomes the enemy of missions.
Is masturbation wrong? Let me address the issue mainly for men. I
cannot imagine sexual orgasm in the loins without sexual image in the
mind. I know there are nocturnal emissions, which I regard as innocent
and helpful, but I doubt that they are ever orgasmic apart from a
sexual dream that supplies the necessary image in the mind. Evidently
God has constituted the connection between sexual orgasm and sexual
thought in such a way that the force and pleasure of orgasm is
dependent on the thought or images in our minds.
Therefore in order to masturbate, it is necessary to get vivid and
exciting thoughts or images into the mind. This can be done by pure
imagination or by pictures or movies or stories or real persons. These
images always involve women as sexual objects. I use the word “object”
because in order for a women to be a true sexual “subject” in our
imagination she must in reality be one with whom we are experiencing
what we are imagining. This is not the case with masturbation.
So I vote no on masturbation. There may be other reasons why it is
wrong. For now I rest my vote on the inevitable sexual images which
accompany masturbation and which turn women into sexual objects. The
sexual thoughts that enable masturbation do not help any man to treat
women with greater respect. Therefore masturbation produces real and
legitimate guilt and stands in the way of obedience.
Three encouragements to single men:
You are not alone in the battle.
Periodic failure in this area no more disqualifies you from ministry
than periodic failures of impatience (which is also a sin).
Pursue the expulsive power of a new affection. I walked by a whole
section of “photography” books at the Walker Art Center last Thursday
empowered by the better pleasure of feeling Christ conquer the
temptation to look.