Can Christians drink, smoke, or use marijuana?
By Will Bourne · Question 132
The direct answer
Scripture condemns drunkenness and enslavement to appetite, but it does not prohibit every use of alcohol. Smoking and modern cannabis use require reasoning from stewardship, sobriety, legality, health, conscience, and care for others. I personally abstain from drinking and smoking, but I do not make my abstinence a verse that Scripture did not write.
Fuller explanation
A permissible act can still be unwise for a particular person. Addiction history, medication, pregnancy, responsibilities, impairment, and the effect on a household all matter.
Legal status does not settle moral wisdom, and illegality should not be treated casually. Medical use and recreational intoxication are also not automatically the same question.
Christian freedom is not a competition to see how close we can remain to harm. Neither is holiness proved by condemning everyone whose conscience reaches a different conclusion.
The objection we still need to face
If you abstain, are you quietly saying faithful Christians should too?
No. I can explain why I abstain without turning my personal discipline into a universal command. Where Scripture clearly speaks, I will teach it. Where application requires wisdom, I should say that honestly.
Scripture and its use
Proverbs 20:1; Romans 13:13–14; Romans 14:1–23; 1 Corinthians 6:12; Ephesians 5:15–18
Read these passages in their surrounding chapters alongside the explanation.