Presently going viral and attracting varied responses from netizens and religionists on social media is a new sermon from pastor Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of Christ Embassy.

Using a quote from the Bible to expand on the theme of masturbation, the televangelist and healer claimed pleasing oneself with the hand is not a sin at all. He emphasized that sin is borne of the heart and not by what one does on his or her own body.

His statement goes thus;

“The Bible says if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. This is one of the ways Jesus explained sin in the Bible. The question you need to ask yourself right now is:

Can your hands or eyes cause you to do something wrong? Not! Jesus said that it is not what goes into you that causes you to sin, but what comes out of you. Remember, when Jesus said this, the disciples had a hard time understanding it.

When the disciples met him for further explanation, he told them that anything that comes out of your heart is a sin. Now the question arises, where is the real sin? Matthew 15:19 (New Living Translation) says, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, lying, and slander.

So this means that the sin of adultery with your body is not an actual sin, but just a manifestation of what your heart desires. The real sin is in the heart. Your eyes cannot make you sin because you do not have a mind of your own. Evil thoughts are born from the heart.”