Adapted from Pastor Brian Phillips’s book Sunday Mornings.
Unworthy Partakers?
Perhaps the most common objection to children taking communion arises from 1st Corinthians 11:27-33. In that text, Paul strongly warns the Corinthians against partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an “unworthy manner.” Verses 27-33 say:
“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”
It is understandable that a parent would pause after reading such a passage. What father wants to let his son or daughter eat and drink damnation? But, these verses are only part of a much larger context in which Paul addresses a specific problem with the Corinthian church’s practice at the Lord’s Table.
Paul begins his discussion of the disturbing Corinthian behavior in verses 17-22:
“Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.”
The real problem with the Corinthians at the Lord’s Supper was that they were not considering one another. They were partaking of the Lord’s Supper (an event which is intended, among other things, to remind us of our union and communion with Christ and the Church) in a way that created further division and fracturing of the church. They were considering only themselves and their own desires, giving no thought to those who had nothing. Think of this particularly in light of what Paul said in verses 16-17 of the previous chapter – “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
When Paul speaks of not partaking in an “unworthy manner…not discerning the Lord’s body” (11:27, 29), he is speaking of those who partake of the one cup and one loaf in a manner which causes division among the body. He is not saying that only those who understand the metaphysical presence of Christ may partake. If that were the case, who could partake of the Supper worthily? If the passage tells us anything about worthy partaking, it’s that it means partaking with the whole body, not a single covenant member left behind (see 11:21).
In the climate of the contemporary church, the children have, tragically, been pushed aside and out of the way. In short, the holy ones have been treated as unclean. They are treated as an inconvenience. To remove children from worship is to train another generation of anemic Christians to worship by their own devising – to abandon good order and follow their own thinking (Colossians 2:5, 8).
But, to allow children to remain in worship and bar them from the Table is no less following the thoughts of man. Requiring covenant children to convince the elders that they deserve what Scripture promises them is just as unbiblical and, perhaps, even crueler. We must raise our children to trust, to believe the promises God has already made to them, and to believe that the body and blood of Christ is given for them, and none of these things is accomplished by merely letting them look at it. We do that by letting them do what we want them to do – partake.
Conclusion
May God help us raise our little ones by His ways and thoughts and not by our own; may He grant the Church repentance for causing her little ones to stumble; may He give wisdom to all believers, that we will work to establish that which we want for our children and our children’s children. May the Lord bring reformation in worship, causing believers to rejoice in knowing that God is God to us, our children, and our children’s children!