Core Issues
In this world, we are inundated with a barrage of pressures that come at us from every direction. We are under pressure regarding the economy, job lay-offs, the exorbitant cost of health insurance, and the ever rising costs of medical care and prescription drugs. Pressures in our schools, on our jobs, regarding terrorism threats--any person, at anytime could detonate explosives that could wipe out masses in one fell swoop. Pressure, pressure, pressure, everywhere we turn.
In many countries around the world, there are people groups who are not as "soft" and as at ease as Americans have traditionally been. These countries have two and three generations of people who have spent their entire lives living with and under great pressure. They learned how to maneuver and keep their focus while surviving in the midst of wars, pestilence, famine, and disease ravaged lands. When their loved ones died all around them, they simply stopped, buried them, and then resumed the next order of business at hand.
One of the problems in a society, such as ours, is we have so much disposable time on our hands. The number of leisure and recreational hours that most of us have readily available (though seldom do we admit it) is amazing. It is during those wasted and unproductive hours that we humans find ourselves getting way out on a limb, and in bondage to behaviors we find hard to control. We first do the behavior, or engage in the activity just a little. We deceive ourselves into thinking that we have some sort of control over whatever "it" is. We tell ourselves, "I'll just do this, this one time. I can do this whenever I want to, because it's no big deal. I can stop whenever I want."
It doesn't take long to discover that the behavior has us hook, line, and sinker. There has to be a decision on the part of individuals to take stock in what it is they obsess over and ask themselves, "How do I positively impact my life or someone else's life by the time I spend on this activity? In what way do I contribute to the betterment of society by what I am doing?"
We have to reckon ourselves to the notion that sexual addictions are just as serious as drug addictions, alcohol addictions, food addictions, and even cigarette addictions. These addictions can actually ravage and debilitate the physical body. We often see the affects and ramifications by the addict's premature death. On the other hand, we are also no less aware that harm done to the invisible organ called "the mind" can be many times worse than the demise of organ tissue. Medical science has come up with ways of repairing and treating physical damage, but the treatment for the mind, who can know when to treat, what to treat, and how to treat, so that we get the "desired" results. It's on a wing and a prayer that we can only hope to somehow help get this person back to "normal."
We have to make a decision, especially if we are believers of Jesus Christ that being addicted to anything other than Him is deadly. The price tag is far too high to fool around casually with any deviant behavior that we know can even cost our witness. We have to seek help and get on the right path to recovery.
There are no two ways about it; masturbation is not an acceptable practice for born-again believers of Jesus Christ. In the book, By Any Other Name It's Still Sex, I wrote a chapter on this in dialogue format. One thing to keep in mind is how much of this behavior is justified among believers.
There are a great number of church leaders who engage in masturbation on a regular basis. There are male pastors who may do this when they are not at home with their wives and they say this is the best option so as not to engage in adultery. It does not matter if the pastor is five miles from home or five hundred miles from home. Until he understands that his heart is drawn away by the enticements and temptations of another "god," he will never know the seriousness of this practice. Some will say masturbation is better than committing adultery. No. No. No. We cannot surmise that we have the full revelation on the so called "demerit system of God--trading one "greater sin" for the "far lesser." This demerit system exists only in the minds of people who want to continue in this salacious behavior. The even greater downside for pastors engaging in this activity (this also goes for female pastors) is the spiritual release of this behavior over their congregations. What is at the head does filter down. When headship has an uncontrollable appetite towards masturbation, we can only imagine what that pastor's congregants are going through. It is an immediate license for the enemy to come into that congregation and have a field day among the sheep!
Another area of widespread masturbation is among singles. Many unmarried believers who do not want to engage in the coital act will say they have committed no sin because there was no coitus. There are those who say they have not fornicated if they don't masturbate themselves, but allow someone else to bring them to a sexual climax. They say they did not sin because they did not do it themselves, by themselves. What nonsense. I mean to tell you, we are really pushing the envelope on our justification of this stuff!
In conclusion, no husband, no wife around that means no pleasure. If you are unmarried, that means no relief, no pleasure. Your hands, their hands, no hands at all for any release of any kind! Is that plain enough?
The rare few will opt for as a way of life this lifestyle. This is not something one does. This is something one becomes. To walk in the celibate lifestyle is to live as Mother Theresa or to walk as Paul the Apostle did. These persons who live life this way really need to begin to celebrate who they are and not allow society to speak less of them. There is a need for us to begin to celebrate the eunuchs that are among us. Each church would be so blessed to know who the eunuchs are in their particular congregations. There are certain responsibilities that I believe these ones living this life should have, certain roles in the church. Wouldn't you think it wonderful to know someone whose lifestyle was beyond question? Who fulfilled a particular role in the leadership of the church--especially if this person could work with the teens or young children; could assist or work with the young adult singles; be available to travel as a chaperone when both sexes have field trips or go out together?
I have one concern with regard to the person who opts for a celibate lifestyle. This person would have to be very sure of who he or she was, with self-esteem issues well in place. This would be very important because I truly believe unless he or she was "old and holy" they would be inundated with questions, gestures, suggestions, attempted setups, unsolicited commentary and the whole nine yards. I believe many attractive males and females are born into the earth to live a celibate lifestyle, but in most cases, I'm sure, no one is going to leave them alone long enough to explore this as their natural course. Unfortunately, therefore, we have a great many people confused and unfulfilled because they are still struggling with whether or not they are "normal." Hopefully, in the days ahead, the church will be one of the first to help straighten out this mess!
We need only read Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John to get a true sense of purity firsthand. When we read about the life of Jesus in the gospels, there is no verbiage or hint of anything to suggest that He walked in any way other than totally pure before the people and before God.
We can walk in purity as well, and that is because we lean and depend upon Christ in us. Without Christ, it is impossible for any human being on the face of this earth to walk in purity. One could abstain from every impure behavior known to man, but there would be no way to determine that he didn't think about impure things. The only way to total purity is through the One who mastered it in His body, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Walking pure is probably one of the most difficult challenges facing believers. Why? Because that is what the world is looking for in so-called Christians! The world really wants to see believers walking in an element of commitment, dedication, and cleanliness that they know mere mortals by themselves cannot achieve. While they may never want to aspire to purity as a lifestyle they would consider themselves, they still hate the notion of compromising believers. The world wants to see religion pure, not believers doing whatever their soul craves. The world is looking for people who can "do this" the right way; and when the believers don't measure up, they are scrutinized under the microscope of judgment. Why shouldn't they judge us believers? Judgment begins at the House of God and when we believers fail to judge ourselves, it leaves us open to judgment by others. Purity is not an option; it is a command. Only the pure in heart shall see God.
