I’m the best man at a very religious wedding on Saturday, but I’m not really religious myself. I want to insert a Bible quote into the best man toast, because everyone else there will appreciate it.
Can anyone recommend an appropriate one? Preferrably one that is a lot more about love/marriage/happines/loyalty than about God/Jesus, since I would feel like a bit of a hypocrite talking about things I don’t believe in, but have no problem quoting the Bible if it’s a sentiment I agree with.
Thanks
The Corinthians quote is lovely, but is often used in wedding ceremonies … you may want to check with your friend to see what scripture they are using.
Here are some other ones I found that could work:
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. – Philippians 1:9
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. – John 4:18
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. – Song of Solomon 8:7
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
– Matthew 6:21
Does it have to be from the Bible? I like this one:
God, the best maker of all marriages, combine your hearts into one.
– William Shakespeare
Do you have a talent for writing? For a friend’s wedding two years ago, I wrote a blessing as my toast. Something along the lines of the traditional Irish or Native American blessings you hear sometimes, (May your times of happiness far outweigh your sorrows, etc.) except I wrote it myself. It doesn’t have to be too long. Just a suggestion, of course. Good luck!
Ruth 1:16-17 (not originally said between a wife & husband, possibly a bit much, but:) “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Well, I’m going to be writing some more personal anecdotal stuff about the groom, but I definitely an actual Bible quote, because of the seriously Christian nature of everyone.
Perhaps I’ll take the quote from Corinthians, and then some of the others as backups in case it’s already taken.
Good luck, here are some I’m thinking about for my wedding.
Song of Songs Ch8:V6, 7
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its ardour unyielding as the tomb. It burns like a fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
Colossians 3:12-17- About forbearance, forgiveness and love
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15- A time to be born, a time to die etc
Ecclesiastes4:9-12- Two are better than one, a cord of three strands cannot be broken
John 2:1-11- the wedding at Cana, Jesus turns water into wine (he wants people to have fun at weddings!)
John 15:9-17- the nature of true love
1 John 4:7-21- “perfect love casts out fear”
Simone Weil said some nice things in “Waiting for God”.
“Lovers or friends desire two things.The one is to love each other so much that they enter into each other and only make one being. The other is to love each other so much that, having half the globe between them, their union will not be diminished in the slightest degree. All any huamn being desires here below is perfectly realised in God. We have all these impossible desires within us as a mark of our destination.”
“It is only necessary to know that love is a direction and not a state of the soul.”
Even better Proverbs 5: 18-19
Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe and a graceful deer- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
I thought that was 1 John (i.e. 1st Epistle of John) 4:5. Not, as you love life, to be confused with John ('s Gospel) 4:5, which is “You have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband” :eek: