Isn’t the teaching of I Corinthians 11 perfectly clear?
For generations the Christian Reformed church has used its preparatory communion forms to teach that mature self-examination is a prerequisite for participation, and this teaching was based on I Cor. 11: “Beloved in Jesus Christ, since we hope next Lord’s day to celebrate the blessed sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we are called to prepare our hearts by rightly examining ourselves. For the apostle Paul has written: ‘Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup’ (I Cor. 11: 27-28).” According to this interpretation and application, children who are not mature enough to conduct such self-examination may not participate. The force of generations of repetition has left the impression that this is the only proper interpretation of this passage. But a careful reading of the context suggests that another int
