Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is) by Joshua Harris

Author:Joshua Harris [Harris, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-0-307-56324-8
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2005-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

WHY IT MATTERS

The reason this very private act matters to God is not because it involves our genitals, but because it involves our hearts. And God is passionately committed to our hearts belonging completely to Him (see Deuteronomy 6:5).

Masturbation isn’t a filthy habit that makes people dirty. It only reveals the dirt that’s already in our hearts. It’s an indicator that we’re feeding the wrong desires. That’s why problems with lustful actions are symptoms of deeper heart problems.

Now you might be thinking, What are you talking about my heart for? This is about my sex drive and is purely biological. Don’t even little kids do this before they’re old enough to lust?

Hear me out. I’m not ignoring the biological realities involved with this issue. It’s true that God has made us sexual creatures with bodies that have the capacity and the urge to satisfy themselves through self-stimulation. Many of us figured out this trick before we were old enough to know what it was called. And as we grow into adolescence, these natural drives only increase. There’s a real, physiological component to all this that shouldn’t be ignored. A guy’s body produces semen that at some point has to be released. This is why a male who doesn’t masturbate will have wet dreams where semen is released during sleep. The majority of males are most sexually charged before sex in marriage is even an option.

So in a sense, masturbation is natural. But does natural mean good? As Christians we have to be careful about assuming that something that comes naturally to humans is morally insignificant. We live in a fallen world. Every part of this planet and our humanity has been marred by sin. So though none of the natural functions of our bodies are inherently sinful, we have to be aware that natural desires can easily become sinful cravings.

Because of sin, even if masturbation starts out innocently in a child, it inevitably begins to involve lustful desires and fantasy. For most people the act is impossible to separate from lust in the heart—whether this involves pornography or not. One guy told me that he and his friends use the acronym LIA to refer to masturbation. It stands for “lust in action.”

I know there are Christians who claim they can masturbate without lusting. They say they think nonsexual thoughts and do it merely for release. It’s not my place to judge the hearts of these people. I can only speak from my own experience when I say that I highly doubt this is possible. What I’ve seen is that lust was always present in a significant way either leading up to or during the act. And then I think of Jeremiah 17:9, which says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” In light of my own ability to lie to myself, I’m very hesitant to trust my own evaluation, especially on this topic. Maybe I can convince myself I’m not lusting in that moment, but the likelihood is that my heart is deceiving me.

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