I would not waste my breath talking about masturbation to somebody who's not interested in following Jesus. I think it's rare for people of either sex to masturbate without violating Christ's teaching in Matthew 5 about lusting in your heart after somebody who is not your mate and committing adultery in your heart. In Ezekiel 16 : 17 masturbation with a sex toy is used as a metaphor for idolatry after fornication is used as a metaphor for idolatry in v. 16. You don't see things that are regarded as good used much if at all in the Bible as metaphors for things that are evil. So I see a scriptural case against masturbation per se, but it is much milder than the case against fornication, which would be getting your body into action with somebody who is not your mate. (If it's not activity that makes babies, that's no excuse.) I don't think God ever intended us to regard masturbation as seriously as fornication, and generally the church has not treated it so. But giving up masturbation years ago was one of the best things I ever did. It enabled me to get control of my libido rather than having my libido jerk me around. Great claims have been made about the benefits of masturbation for married people's sex lives but what you don't hear is that studies have started to accumulate that show negative correlations between masturbation and marital sexual fulfillment. I believe the latter studies and the former set of studies I believe were misinterpreting cause and effect.
