The Narrow Path Ministries

This is a difficult subject simply because it is such a strong drive in nearly every person (especially men) and even those that are married.

The thing we have to realize is how big the snowball can get. First off to do this once and to think of a woman that is not your wife is a sin since Jesus said that to look on another woman in lust is to be an adulterer at heart. But it can become a force too great to reckon with. It can become so that it gives Satan a foothold in your mind. So that you may come up to a Christian sister and she may not even be dressed provocatively and she may just be having a conversation with you and in your mind you are just thinking about how good looking she is to an extreme point.

I think it is a very dangerous practice to become involved in. However do you consider it wrong when you are married, and sex (for one reason or another) is temporarily unavailable, and you think only of your wife?

I honestly don't know. I know of no command of God that is directly violated. However, such unavailability of sex with one's wife may be a divinely-appointed test of a man's self-control. I would probably see it this way myself, but other may not.

Old topic, and half the participants are probably gone but ...

I remember sitting around with a group of college friends (Christians) and one of the older guys was talking about how "everyone does it" and "anyone who says he doesn't is lying", etc. I, about 19 years old, had not "done it" and actually had practically no idea what he was talking about. Of course, I just kept my mouth shut lest I be called a liar or reveal my ignorance and apparent freakish-ness.

I don't really know, but I would imagine that masturbation was not very common 100s or 1000s of years ago when form-fitting clothing and half-dressed people weren't everywhere, when the average age of marriage was perhaps in the latter teenage years [Edit: Just looked at a few stats and I'm not sure that men ever married quite so young as that], when people didn't have a great deal of idle time and solitude, and when women in general weren't, perhaps, all that nice to look at.

In any case, I totally agree with what Steve, Christopher, and Schoel wrote.