This question comes up because marijuana is common, and a lot of believers want to know how to think straight about it when the Bible does not name it directly. The cleanest way to handle it is to start where Scripture speaks plainly about spiritual influence, mental clarity, self-control, and what it means to live under the Holy Spirit’s leading. Ephesians 5:18 is the anchor for that.
Controlled by what
Ephesians 5 sits in the practical part of the letter. Paul has already explained what God has done for us in Christ, that we are saved by grace through faith, and that God makes us a new person in Him. Now he is talking about how that new life shows up in everyday choices. He does not treat the Christian life as private feelings. He talks about how you walk, speak, think, and respond.
In that flow, Paul gives a direct command about what should and should not control a believer’s inner life.
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)
Paul uses drunkenness because everyone can see what it does. It changes judgment, lowers restraint, and puts someone under an influence that is not the Lord. But the contrast in the verse is bigger than alcohol. It is control. Do not put yourself under an influence that leads to moral and spiritual waste. Instead, live under the Holy Spirit’s influence.
That is why “getting high” is a real issue. Getting high is not accidental exposure. It is a chosen state. The goal is an altered mind, usually for escape, numbness, or pleasure. That goal runs the opposite direction from the clear-minded, Spirit-led life Paul is calling for.
What filled means
Pay attention to Ephesians 5:18. The verb translated be filled is a command, and it carries the idea of an ongoing pattern, not a one-time event. It is also passive in the sense that you are not the one producing the filling. You do not work it up. You yield to the Spirit’s leading.
Here is what many people miss on a first pass: Paul is not telling believers to get more of the Spirit, as if the Spirit comes in pieces. Every true believer has the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). Paul is calling you to give more of yourself to the Spirit’s control, so His leading shows up in your choices, your reactions, and your words.
Right after Ephesians 5:18, Paul describes what Spirit-filled living looks like in real life: worship that comes from the heart, gratitude, and humble relationships (Ephesians 5:19-21). That is a helpful check. The direction of the Spirit’s filling is not fog, passivity, and checking out. It is a clear mind that can worship, obey, and serve.
What dissipation points to
Ephesians 5:18 ties drunkenness to what many translations call dissipation. The Greek word behind that has the idea of wastefulness, a life that spills out with no restraint and no good end. The verse is not saying every person who ever drinks anything is in sin. It is specifically about being drunk, meaning being brought under controlling influence.
That helps keep the marijuana question on the right track. The issue is not whether something grows from the ground. Plenty of harmful things do. The issue is what you are seeking and what you are allowing to master you. If the purpose is intoxication, the purpose itself conflicts with Ephesians 5:18.
Somebody may say, I can still function. But functioning is not the same as being spiritually alert and self-controlled. The Bible is not aiming at bare-minimum functioning. It is aiming at a life shaped by the Spirit, with a mind ready to obey God and love people well.
Sober and alert
Once you see the control issue in Ephesians 5:18, you start noticing how often the New Testament connects spiritual readiness with sobriety. The Christian life includes real temptation, real pressure, and real spiritual conflict. Scripture keeps calling believers to stay clear-minded, not dulled and drifting.
Peter is direct about this when he writes to believers who were facing suffering and opposition.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
Those commands, sober and vigilant, are not about personality type. They are about posture. Sober is mental clarity and self-control. Vigilant is watchfulness, staying awake to what is really going on. Peter is not trying to make believers fearful. He is telling them to stay ready.
Peter grounds that readiness in a real danger: the devil is an adversary who looks for an opening. That does not mean a born-again believer can be owned by him. A believer belongs to Christ, and the one who is truly born again is secure in Him. But a believer can be harmed, tangled up in sin, and made ineffective by foolish choices. A habit built around escape trains you to be less watchful, not more.
Peter does not stop with warning. He tells believers what to do under pressure.
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. (1 Peter 5:9)
Resist him, steadfast in the faith. Faith there is not a warm feeling. It is active reliance on what God has said and who God is. That kind of steadfastness does not go with a chosen fog. And it is not only about the time a person is high. It is about what they are training their heart to do when stress hits. If anxiety, boredom, loneliness, or pain becomes the cue to get high, those same moments stop becoming cues to pray, reach out for help, open Scripture, and take the next obedient step.
Here is an easy-to-miss observation: the New Testament uses sobriety language even when alcohol is not the direct topic. Peter connects sober-mindedness with fixing your hope on Christ’s return (1 Peter 1:13). Hope is not supposed to make you spacey. Biblical hope steadies you and keeps you ready. Chasing numbness works against that.
Not just legality
Some people want the whole question answered by a law book: Is it legal where I live? But legality is not the same as godliness. Scripture often goes deeper and asks what something does to your heart, your thinking, your relationships, and your usefulness to the Lord.
Another person may say, It calms me down. Sometimes it might, at least for a little while. But Scripture still presses the deeper question: what kind of calm is it, and where is it coming from? Is it peace built on trusting the Lord and thinking clearly under His Word, or is it chemical numbness that avoids dealing with what is really going on? One leads to growth and steadiness. The other trains retreat.
Medical claims
We do need to keep this straight. There is a difference between getting high for escape and using a medicine under proper care for a real medical issue. Scripture does not forbid every use of every substance in every form. It does forbid being controlled, being intoxicated, and living in ways that dull the mind and feed the flesh.
So if there is a true medical situation, wisdom may involve competent medical care. But medical language should not be used as cover for recreational intoxication. If the goal is to get high, Scripture’s direction is not unclear. That goal is the very thing Ephesians 5:18 sets against the Spirit’s filling and the clear-minded life that follows.
Walking in the Spirit
Ephesians 5:18 and 1 Peter 5:8-9 put sobriety and alertness on the table. Scripture also gives a positive alternative, because the Christian life is not only stop doing wrong. God replaces old patterns with new ones.
Paul describes that way of life as walking by the Spirit.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)
Walking is ordinary language. It is daily steps. It is what you do on a Tuesday afternoon when stress hits and you have choices to make. Paul says if you walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. He does not say, try harder in the flesh so you will not sin. He points you to a different power and a different direction.
The desire to get high is not morally neutral. It is a desire for a chosen mental state. For some it is pleasure. For others it is relief. For others it is escape. Scripture calls believers to bring those desires under the Spirit’s leadership, not feed them.
The battle inside
Galatians 5 goes on to describe a real conflict inside the believer (Galatians 5:17). The flesh there is not your skin and bones. It is the old, self-centered pull that wants life on its own terms. The Spirit leads you toward obedience, love, and self-control.
Getting high leans into the flesh’s pattern. It says, I want relief now, I want my mood changed now, I want my mind altered now. Walking by the Spirit says, Lord, I need help right now. Help me obey right now. Help me endure right now. Those are two different directions.
Paul also warns believers not to use their freedom as cover for the flesh, but to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13). That pushes back on a common defense: I am free in Christ, so this is my business. Christian freedom is real, but it is not freedom to be mastered by cravings. And using marijuana to get high tends to turn a person inward. It makes life about managing feelings and chasing comfort. The Spirit turns us outward toward love, service, and self-control.
A word about sorcery
One Greek word is worth a brief note, because people do run into it. In Galatians 5:20, Paul lists works of the flesh and includes a term often translated sorcery. The word is related to pharmakeia, which was used for drug use connected to magic, potions, and occult practice. Paul is not giving a chemistry chart, and he is not saying every medical use of any drug equals that sin. But the word does show that Scripture recognizes a category where using substances to alter the inner experience can be tied to serious spiritual corruption.
At the very least, it warns us not to be casual about drug-based altered states. People do not usually chase intoxication because they want to be more prayerful, more discerning, and more obedient.
Renewing the mind
Walking by the Spirit is closely tied to renewed thinking. God changes lives from the inside out, and the mind is a major battleground. Paul tells believers not to be pressed into the world’s mold, but to be transformed by renewed thinking (Romans 12:2). A renewed mind grows in discernment, learning what pleases God.
That sits right against the purpose of getting high. Getting high is chosen dullness. Renewing the mind is chosen clarity under God’s Word. One clouds discernment. The other sharpens it.
It is also not just about the minutes someone is high. Repeated habits shape you. They teach you what you run to, what you believe will help, and what you expect will bring comfort. A pattern of intoxication can become a shortcut around prayer, around counsel, around dealing honestly with pain, and around letting the Lord build endurance.
Honoring God bodily
Paul also reminds believers that the body belongs to God. The Holy Spirit lives in the believer, and that makes our bodies a place set apart for God’s use (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul’s point is ownership and purpose. You belong to Christ. Jesus bought you at a price. So you are not free to treat your body as a personal lab for whatever experience you want.
That does not mean a believer never struggles. It does mean we cannot make peace with a habit that intentionally seeks intoxication. If the aim is to lose clarity, the aim itself is out of step with what God says the body is for.
Many people want to ask, How far can I go and still be okay? Scripture trains a better question: Can I do this to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)? If the whole point is to numb reality, soften conviction, or check out, that cannot honestly be offered to the Lord as a God-honoring act.
Where to run instead
Behind a lot of getting high is a heart that wants relief. Sometimes it is deep pain. Sometimes it is anxiety. Sometimes it is loneliness. Sometimes it is boredom that exposes emptiness. Scripture does not mock those burdens, and it does not tell you to pretend you are fine. It tells you where to take them.
Jesus calls the heavy-laden to come to Him for rest.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
Notice how personal and practical that is. Come to Me is not a technique. It is going to a Person. Take My yoke means you submit to His leadership. A yoke also implies pace and direction. Learn from Me is discipleship, listening to His words and obeying them. His rest is not a two-hour vacation from reality. It is His help and steadiness while you face reality with Him.
God also calls Himself a refuge and strength, present help in trouble.
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
That is not meant to sound pretty. It is meant to be used. When pressure hits, you can turn it into prayer, even if it is plain: Lord, I am not doing well. Help me obey. Help me reach out to someone wise. Help me endure without running to sin.
If marijuana has become your escape, repentance is not only feeling bad. Repentance is turning around. It means calling it what it is, bringing it into the light with the Lord, and taking practical steps that match the change you say you want. Secrecy feeds sin. Light kills it.
My Final Thoughts
If you are using marijuana to get high, be honest about what you are reaching for: an altered mind so you can escape, numb out, or feel better for a while. That pursuit does not fit a life where the Lord calls you to be clear-minded, self-controlled, alert, and filled with the Spirit as Ephesians 5:18 describes. This is not about earning salvation. Salvation is God’s gift through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and the one who is truly born again is secure in Him. But it is about living like someone who belongs to Christ, with a mind and body that are not to be mastered by a substance.
If you are carrying real pressure, pain, anxiety, or grief, do not medicate your soul with a high. Bring the burden to the Lord and get help in the open. Talk to a mature believer. If there are medical issues, seek wise medical care and be truthful about motives. God gives better refuge than escape, and better peace than numbness. He does not promise an easy life, but He does promise to be present help, and He does know how to teach His people to walk steady with a clear mind.
Get the book that teaches you how to evangelize and disarm doctrines from every single major cult and religion.