Can Christians Use Cannabis?

I'm going to talk about something most pastors won't touch.

Cannabis.

Can a Christian use it?
Is it a sin?
Am I losing my salvation over a plant?

I get these questions all the time, and I understand why.

Most of the answers people get are either legalistic guilt trips or a careless "do whatever you want." Neither one helps anybody, and neither one is the gospel.

Let me walk you through it honestly, with Scripture and wisdom, not just my opinion.

First, let's settle the salvation question.

No, you will not lose your salvation over cannabis.

Salvation was secured by the blood of Jesus Christ, not by your ability to abstain.

Once saved, always saved. You were perfected forever (Hebrews 10:14), and nothing separates you from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).

That includes a plant.

If you've been carrying guilt, thinking God revoked your salvation because you smoked, let that go right now. That's condemnation, not conviction.

Here's where most people stop. They hear "it won't cost you your salvation" and figure the conversation is over.

It's not.

Salvation and wisdom are two different things.

You can be fully saved and still be letting something take God's place in your life. Salvation is settled. What you run to for comfort is the part worth examining.

Paul said it like this: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient."

Lawful means it's permissible. You're free. Expedient means it's actually good for you, the kind of thing that builds something in you.

The Bible never mentions cannabis by name. It's not on some list of sins, and it's not a salvation issue.

What the Bible does talk about is what you turn to for relief. That's where this gets personal.

The real question was never "is cannabis a sin?" It's "why am I using it?"

That applies to everything, not just cannabis.

Maybe you use it once in a while for medical pain. That's one conversation. Maybe it's recreational, just to take the edge off after a long day. Different conversation. If you reach for it because you can't sit with your own anxiety without it, now we're getting somewhere.

When something becomes the first thing you run to, before you ever run to God, it's moved from a substance to a substitute.

Anything you run to for comfort before you run to God is functioning as a savior. That seat was never built for a plant.

Your feelings are a con man. They'll con you into thinking you need it.

Prayer is not transferring data to God. It's transferring dependence. It's where you put that weight down and lean on Him instead of the thing.

If cannabis is where your stress goes before prayer ever gets a shot at it, you're not dealing with a sin problem. You're dealing with a worship problem.

I'm not just talking about cannabis. Food does it for some people. So does scrolling, or work, or a relationship you can't be without. The substance is not the point. It's what the heart is reaching for. For me I don't use cannabis but I did and do turn to others things. 

I've been around every kind of substance. In the gang, drugs were everywhere. In the streets, people numbed themselves with whatever they could get their hands on. Then I got saved, and I watched believers use "acceptable" things to do the exact same numbing the world does with drugs, just with a cleaner label.

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
1 Corinthians 10:31 (KJV)

Do it all to the glory of God. That's the filter. Does this glorify God in my life, or not?

Does it draw you closer to God, or make you forget you need Him? Does it grow the fruit of the Spirit in you, or work against it?

The Holy Spirit produces self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). If something keeps undercutting your self-control, it's working against what He's building in you.

That's not God condemning you. That's Him showing you where something's out of line.

There's a difference between someone who's struggling and someone who's justifying.

If you're struggling with dependence and it convicts you, that's the Holy Spirit doing what He does, leading you back to truth and back to the Word. That's conviction.

But if you're using your freedom as a blanket to cover something you already know isn't good for you, hunting for someone to tell you it's fine so you never have to look at your own heart, that's a different thing.

Either way, grace has you. The growth comes from being honest about which one you're in.

God is not trying to take your joy. He's trying to be your joy.
When something else takes that seat, He doesn't condemn you. He just asks, "Why are you running there instead of here?"

That question isn't angry. It's the question of a Father watching His child run to a counterfeit when the real thing is right here.

I remember when God asked me that same question about something in my own life. Not cannabis. Something else I was using to cope that I'd convinced myself was harmless. He didn't yell and He didn't condemn me. He just made me honest.

"Is this building you up, or is this just comfortable?"

Comfortable and beneficial are not the same thing.

When I got honest with myself, I knew the answer.

I'm not here to tell you cannabis is a sin, and I'm not here to tell you it's fine either.

I'm here to ask you the same question God asked me:

What are you running to for comfort?
Is it pulling you closer to Him, or further from ever needing Him?

Your answer is between you and God. At least ask the question. Most people never do.

Here's how to be honest about your decisions:

1. Get honest about the why, not the what.

Don't ask what you're using. Ask why you're using it. If it's medical or the occasional enjoyment, look at the fruit it produces. If the honest answer is "I can't handle my stress without it" or "I need it to relax," that's a dependency signal, and signals deserve attention, not shame.

2. Stop measuring by what's legal.

Don't say, "It's legal, so it must be fine." Say, "Legal doesn't mean good for me. I measure my freedom by what builds me up and glorifies God, not by what I'm allowed to do."

3. Replace before you remove.

If something's sitting in a seat that belongs to God, don't just muscle through it. That's dead works. Start taking the thing you've been handing to the substance straight to God instead. Take your stress to prayer. When you're lonely, go to people who actually know you, not something that just numbs it. When the real thing meets the need, the substitute loses its grip.

PRAYER

Father God,

I'm asking You to search every crevice of my heart today.

Show me what I've been running to for comfort that was never meant to carry that weight, be it substances or anything else.

If something's been sitting in a seat that belongs to You, I want to see it, and I want to be free of it.

You are my peace and You are my rest.

I don't want to train my heart to run anywhere else first.

Give me honesty today, and the courage to follow it.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.