LIVE FREE: PORNOGRAPHY - MASTURBATIONSample

Genesis 38:8-10 (NIV): Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord put him to death also.

Many preconceived ideas about masturbation exist. Because of these preconceived ideas, liberation from this addiction is complicated.

Let's start by positioning masturbation and what the Bible does and does not say about it.

We often hear it said that the Bible condemns masturbation because of the text in Genesis, which mentions the sin of Onan. Onan was condemned by God and died, but not because he masturbated. Here, the man is condemned because he refuses to obey God's succession law.

In those days, when a man died without posterity, his surviving brothers had to take care of the widow by bringing her offspring, who could care for her when she was old. Onan, surviving his deceased brother, had to sleep with his sister-in-law to provide her with offspring in his brother's name. But he refused to do so, lest he destroy his own inheritance. In fact, he did have intimate relations with his sister-in-law, but he practiced "coitus interruptus." As the Bible says, he let his seed fall to the ground without going into details. In this text, masturbation is not condemned but rather the failure to obey the law that God had asked him to follow.

All too often, this biblical text is misused as a systematic and absolute condemnation of masturbation when it is really about something else.

But, just because there is no condemnation of masturbation in the Bible does not mean we encourage it, especially when we are talking about addictions.

When we are in a pattern of addiction, something has taken God's place, has taken the first place in our hearts, directs our day, and is the main focus of our efforts and our daily lives. Everything revolves around this addiction.

Conversations on this subject lead us to believe that it is mainly a male issue, but no, masturbation addiction on the female side exists as well. Yes, you read that right! Every person, whatever their gender, can suffer from an addiction to masturbation.

We are talking about an addiction, not just a one time accidental masturbation. If there is a real addiction, something is controlling us, and this problem will not be solved by having sex with our spouse or future spouse.