Scripture condemns drunkenness and being mastered by anything, not a drink in itself. This is a matter of freedom, wisdom, and conscience, never a rule that makes or breaks your standing with God.
The Grace Answer
Somewhere along the way this got turned into a line that decides whether God is pleased with you. So take the pressure off first. Your standing with God does not hang on what is or is not in your glass. That was settled at the cross, not at the bar.
What Scripture consistently warns against is being mastered. Do not be drunk with wine, Paul says, because dissipation follows. Be filled with the Spirit instead. The concern is losing yourself, handing the controls of your life to a substance, not the mere existence of the substance. Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding. The repeated warning is against drunkenness, addiction, and the loss of a clear, sober mind.
Where alcohol and weed are not the same question
Here honesty matters. A drink can be enjoyed without getting drunk. Recreational marijuana is usually used for the express purpose of getting high, which lands it much closer to the very thing Scripture keeps warning against: a clouded, altered mind. So the questions multiply. Is it legal where you live? Is it medical, under a doctor’s care, or recreational intoxication? Does it impair your judgment, your driving, your responsibilities, your walk with the Spirit? Is it becoming a dependency? Medical use under qualified care is simply not the same conversation as getting high to escape.
Underneath both sits one apostolic instinct. When Paul quoted the Corinthian slogan “all things are lawful,” he immediately qualified it: not all things are helpful, and he would not be brought under the power of anything. Freedom is real, and it is not a license to be ruled. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So weigh it with wisdom, conscience, sober-mindedness, and love for the people around you, rather than a bare rulebook. And refuse the opposite ditch too, where freedom hardens into a new law you measure everyone else by. Grace keeps you free, keeps you clear-headed, and keeps you His. None of this is about how much you can get away with. It is about staying clear enough to follow the One who leads you, and free enough to set the whole thing down the moment it starts to own you.