Marijuana and The Bible

What Does God Say?

I, as I am sure many who will read this, at one point

or another has wondered, “What does The Bible
say in accordance to the use of marijuana?”. The
Bible never speaks directly of any drug except
alcohol which leads many of us to wonder what
God’s actual intent was for this plant. In this essay
it is my intent to present you with actual scripture
according to the New International Version of The
Bible. I will present the scripture to you and let you
make your own decisions from it.

There are a couple of things one needs to

understand about scripture before you should use
it to argue a point. First, scripture is very
contextual, meaning, to understand scripture you
need to understand the context in which it was
written. You can’t just quote a passage or part of a
passage without first understanding the things that
precede and come after the passage. Where
possible I will give you the background behind each
passage to help you further understand the context
in which it was written. Second when it comes to
the subject at hand scripture can be rather vague.
The passages commonly used to argue for the use
of marijuana are few and far between and are
often taken out of context.

You may ask yourself, “Who is this guy anyways

that he thinks he knows so much?”. I’ll give you my
background so that you can see that I know a little
about what I am writing. For the better part of my
life it was my intent to become a pastor in the
synod that I was a member of. I attended private
schools through High School where I studied
scripture in depth on a daily basis. I am by no
means an expert, but I know and understand more
about scripture than most.

The following are passages commonly used to

argue for the use of marijuana. After each passage
I will go into more depth on how it pertains to the
subject at hand.

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-

bearing plant on the face of the whole earth
and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.
They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the
beasts of the earth and all the birds of the
air and all the creatures that move on the
ground—everything that has the breath of
life in it—I give every green plant for food."
And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was
very good. And there was evening, and there
was morning—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:29-
31)

The passage above comes from the first book of

the Bible, Genesis. The passage is taken from the
account of the creation of the earth. From this
passage we can see that God gave man everything
on the face of the earth to use. God also says that
everything that he created is “good”. The use of
the word good here is an understatement. Good in
this sense is perfect. If God created something and
it met his standards of being “good” it was perfect.

22 Then the LORD said to Moses, 23 "Take

the following fine spices: 500 shekels [a] of
liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250
shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels
of fragrant cane, 24 500 shekels of cassia—
all according to the sanctuary shekel—and a
hin of olive oil. 25 Make these into a sacred
anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a
perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.
26 Then use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting,
the ark of the Testimony, 27 the table and all
its articles, the lampstand and its
accessories, the altar of incense, 28 the altar
of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the
basin with its stand. 29 You shall consecrate
them so they will be most holy, and whatever
touches them will be holy. (Exodus 30:22-29)

At first glance the above passage doesn’t seem to

have anything to do with the subject at hand. The
relevance lies in the fact that some argue that the
“fragrant cane” found in verse 23 is actually a
mistranslation of the original Hebrew text. The
actual Hebrew translated into English looks like this
“qanenbosm” or Cannabis. The things that were
being anointed with this oil were the most Holy of
Holy instruments in the Israelites temple.

2One man's faith allows him to eat

everything, but another man, whose faith is
weak, eats only vegetables. 3The man who
eats everything must not look down on him
who does not, and the man who does not eat
everything must not condemn the man who
does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are
you to judge someone else's servant? To his
own master he stands or falls. And he will
stand, for the Lord is able to make him
stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred
than another; another man considers every
day alike. Each one should be fully convinced
in his own mind. 6He who regards one day as
special, does so to the Lord. He who eats
meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to
God; and he who abstains, does so to the
Lord and gives thanks to God. 7For none of
us lives to himself alone and none of us dies
to himself alone. 8If we live, we live to the
Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So,
whether we live or die, we belong to the
Lord.
9For this very reason, Christ died and
returned to life so that he might be the Lord
of both the dead and the living. 10You, then,
why do you judge your brother? Or why do
you look down on your brother? For we will
all stand before God's judgment seat. 11It is
written:
" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.' "[a] 12So
then, each of us will give an account of
himself to God.
13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on
one another. Instead, make up your mind not
to put any stumbling block or obstacle in
your brother's way. 14As one who is in the
Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food
is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards
something as unclean, then for him it is
unclean. 15If your brother is distressed
because of what you eat, you are no longer
acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy
your brother for whom Christ died. 16Do not
allow what you consider good to be spoken
of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a
matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit, (Romans 14:2-17)

The passage above was taken from the Book of

Romans. Romans was one Paul’s epistles. Epistles
were letters that Paul wrote to various bodies of
Christians throughout the Roman empire. Romans
is considered by many the chief epistle. The
passage above was written through Paul to God’s
church. The passage was written because some in
the Church were accusing each other of having a
lack of faith because of the foods they consumed.
Some believed that the Old Testament ceremonial
laws still needed to be obeyed while others
believed that since Christ’s coming the ceremonies
of the Old Testament were no longer necessary. In
fact Christ had been the fulfillment of the Old
Testament laws and the old laws were no longer
necessary. Because some believed that the old
laws still needed to be followed they would not eat
pork and other meats. What Paul is saying in this
passage is that we are no longer bound to the
ceremonial laws of the old testament and that all of
God’s creation is ours to use. But if one feels in his
heart that he should still abstain from such things
and that he would be sinning by doing otherwise
one should still abstain. Once again how does this
all fit in? God gave us everything on the earth to
use. If one believes that the use of Marijuana is a
sin he should not partake. If another believes that
it is okay for that person it could be okay. The point
of the matter is that in all that we do we are to do
it to the glory of God.

11What goes into a man's mouth does not

make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of
his mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.'
"…15Peter said, "Explain the parable to us."
16"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
17"Don't you see that whatever enters the
mouth goes into the stomach and then out of
the body? 18But the things that come out of
the mouth come from the heart, and these
make a man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart
come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
20These are what make a man 'unclean'; but
eating with unwashed hands does not make
him 'unclean.' " (Matthew 15:11, 15-20)

This passage is once again about Old Testament

laws. The Pharisees (priests) still believed in the
ceremonial laws and were slandering Jesus
disciples for not following the laws. At this point
Jesus stepped in and made the statement above.
We can see from this statement that it isn’t the
things of which we partake that makes us evil, but
rather the thoughts and feelings from within.

This concludes the section on passages that could

be used to argue for the use of Marijuana. This is
by no means an exhaustive collection of passages
used to argue for the use of Marijuana. These are
only the ones I come across most often and that
seem to have the most relevance. Other passages
are taken too much out of context or are obviously
not related to the discussion at hand.

Now, on to some passages that are commonly used

to say that the use of Marijuana is spiritually
wrong. As I did with the passages that are used in
the argument for Marijuana I will give you the
passage and a little background on it and let you
make your own decisions.

12 Be warned, my son, of anything in

addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and
much study wearies the body.
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into
judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes
12:12-14)

Ecclesiastes is a rather short book in the Bible. The

main point of the book is that a life not centered on
God is purposeless and meaningless. The passage
above tells us that on the last day all the things
that we do both good and bad will be judged and
we will be held accountable. We may not even
know that some of the things that we are doing are
bad but never the less we will still be held
accountable.

16Don't you know that you yourselves are

God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in
you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God
will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred,
and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-
17)

Corinthians 1&2 were also epistles written through

Paul to God’s Church in Corinth. This passage is
pretty self explanatory. Our bodies are sacred and
harming or misusing them in any way is worthy of
punishment.

1As for you, you were dead in your

transgressions and sins, 2in which you used
to live when you followed the ways of this
world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the
air, the spirit who is now at work in those
who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived
among them at one time, gratifying the
cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following
its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we
were by nature objects of wrath. 4But
because of his great love for us, God, who is
rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions—
it is by grace you have been saved.
(Ephesians 2:1-5)

The above passage is talking about how before one

has faith he leads a life that follows the ways of the
world and not that of Christ. It is only by the grace
of God that we are saved and without that grace
we would surely be damned. Faith in Christ causes
us to turn from the ways of the world and focus on
Christ.

Even after writing this I still do not know if what I

do on a daily basis is right or wrong. There are
some that will say without any doubt that it is
wrong and others who believe just the opposite. I
hope that this will help others who also struggle
with this question. I am beginning to believe that
this is something that each person must make a
decision on him or herself and be ready to deal
with the consequences of that decision. The
problem is that the consequences are so great. I,
as I am sure some of you will, continue to struggle
with this issue. All we can do is pray and search out
scripture. God’s blessing to all of you as you
continue to unravel this issue.