Should Christians smoke marijuana on this edition of Truth and Love?

I'm Heath Lambert and you're listening to Truth and Love, a podcast of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors,

where we seek to provide biblical solutions for the problems that people face.

Truth and Love is listened by people all across the United States and all across the world.

But in the United States, we currently exist in a situation where eight states in our republic have allowed the recreational use of

marijuana by their citizens. And this has created a context for a new sense of urgency about whether

it is appropriate for people to engage in smoking marijuana. For Christians, of course, we are not as concerned about what

the culture is doing in order to make something acceptable. We are concerned about what the

scripture says. And so this week on the podcast, we want to talk about whether or not it is

appropriate for Christians to smoke marijuana. I want to argue that

there's actually four reasons why Christians should completely abstain from smoking marijuana.

The first reason is that smoking marijuana is a criminal act. The Bible, of course, urges Christians to submit to the

governing authorities. And in a place like Romans chapter 13, verse one, we're told very clearly,

every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority

except from God and those which exist are established by God.

We are to submit to the governing authorities whenever we can, and right now it is illegal in the

United States to smoke marijuana. Now, if you're a resident of Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine,

Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, or the

District of Columbia, you might be listening to this and saying, well, it's not illegal for me.

In my state, they just passed legislation, and I can go buy it and smoke it anytime I want.

Well, that's true at the level of the state, but as of this recording, right now

today, marijuana use is illegal in all 50 states by federal law. So there is a disagreement in

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