There appears to be a variation among churches whether the act of masturbation is a sin or not. I have read that many bible scholars have concluded that the Bible scriptures imply that it not a sin. But, that the sexual fantasy associated with the act is adulterous.
How can the act of masturbation be without some form of sexual fantasy?
Consider these three scenarios:
(1) My wife helps me masturbate while I watch a video of a female model showing her completely nude body. The model is not performing any sexual act – a condition that my wife sets as a condition for helping me to have sexual satisfaction.
(2) I am alone and I masturbate while watching a female nude model not performing a sexual act. I discuss this with my wife and she approves wanting me to have sexual satisfaction only if promise to view a nude model performing no sexual act.
(3) I am alone and fanaticize about the great sex my wife and I had when we were younger. If I get aroused I masturbate.
My wife is a very caring and understanding person. She hopes that I can have a high level of sexual excitement as possible. We both are senior citizens and unfortunately she is unable to have intercourse or experience any sexual arousal activity due to medical reasons. I continue to have strong sexual urges unusual for my age and require frequent sexual satisfaction. We consider ourselves as good Christians and want God not to be displeased with our actions.
Would greatly appreciate your evaluation of the above scenarios and your thoughts for the appropriate one (ones) in your judgement.
I have no judgment. Biologically, masturbation is a normal part of life for a mammal.
Do you see God striking a monkey down, for masturbating at the zoo?
I can promise you, that anyone whose job description contains creating and maintaining the universe, is not watching to see whether or not your hand is moving on your penis.
About the paradox of religious belief, my best guess is that anyone who has a vested interest in whether or not someone else is masturbating, is trying to control them, for their own ends. There is no universal religious belief towards masturbation. If someone is trying to make you feel guilty for a normal biological release, such as masturbation or other normal body excretions, it is not your problem.
Your religion and your belief is a personal thing. I look at it this way. If you feel it is wrong, then it is wrong for you. If not then it is ok for you, unless it hurts another.
If your religion says that masturbation is a sin (and all religions say so, as far as I know, but ascribe to it different degrees of severity), then you can't get away with it.
You have a few options here, however. You do accept yourself as a sinner - we are all sinners, by the way - and move on with your life through apology, penitence and remission. This looks trivial, but this is the very breach religions offer their followers. Or you may want to resist the "temptation", possibly living a miserable life and commiting other sins and even more harm to yourself through other practices. Or you may also decide that a certain amount of masturbation assures your physical and emotional health and that you can't properly serve God if you are not that healthy. As you can see, some of these tangents are purely rationalisations.
Personally, I think it's better to look at masturbation from an ethical and physical point of view. It doesn't harm anyone else. It provides you with physical satisfaction that you can't obtain elsewhere and it is not detrimental, as long as it is not excessive.
Relax.
That said, I want to congratulate you for being a senior and still maintaining your sexual vigour. This means that either you have a good constitution or you know how to take care of yourself.
This is not meant to be a piece of advice, but just a personal opinion: I'd rather masturbate alone, by myself, than with my spouse, unless she were profiting from it for herself. And in this case, I'd be free to choose any kind of stimulation. But if this is your choice, I fully respect it and I encourage you to keep it.
masturbation isn't a sin, just like urinating or having a bowel movement isn't a sin.....it's a normal bodily function. I don't think you should have to apologize for it to anyone, including "God"
Well, this is my evaluation. From one christian to another. The christian, meaning Christ like, carrying out the good that he did while here. He taught that our thoughts should be pure and clean/holy. I don't think masturbation should be the issue here. The issue is our thought pattern. Everyone don't believe or agree on holy scripture the same, and that's where our problem starts! The holy scripture says, to let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, and that mind was to please his father in heaven. We can quote scriptures all day, but the bottom line is, as Christians our goal is to please the Lord in all we do. Would the Lord be pleased with my looking on another women's nude temple/body for sexual pleaser? I won't judge your actions, but I will make a suggestion.
Get a picture of you wife when she was young and beautiful, and use it to bring yourself to arousal.
If you wife is there with you, I don't think of it as masturbation. It's just the form of sex you are experiencing as a married couple with limitations. There are probably a lot more people who have this issue than you'd ever guess.
Secondly, when you are alone, I like the idea of firing up some memories from your younger days. Whether or not your faith thinks it is sin, it would probably ease any guilt you might have if you were using your own bank of memories from your younger years with with your wife than using porn.
At the end of the day, I agree that this is between you and your God.
