I have been considering the topic of covenant communion.  Covenant communion holds that communion is for the body of Christ.  It is a corporate meal and needs to be seen in that light.  Therefore, those who are in the “body” are included in the invitation to come to the Table.  This includes baptized children of believing parents who have not yet made an outward profession of faith.

Baptized children of believing parents are a part of the body (i.e. the Church).  Paul begins his address in the first letter to the church at Corinth with, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints . . . (1 Corinthians 1:1-2).  He write to the church which he refers to as “sanctified in Christ Jesus” and “saints.”

The term sanctified is the same term he later uses of children of believing parents in 1 Corinthians 7:14, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy [i.e. sancitified].” Paul calls children of at least one believing parent “holy” or a “saint.” It is not my intention to unpack the meaning of that verse here, but only to point out that Paul includes children of believing parents in the body of the church.  And if our children are a part of the covenant body, then they are included in the sacraments of the New Covenant, including the covenant meal of the body of Christ.

Paul appeals to the Old Testament in 1 Corinthians 10 (which, by the way, is the immediate context for chapter 11) that provides a framework for the NT sacraments.  He says “all were baptized unto Moses, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:2-4). Clearly the children in the covenant were included in the body as they partook of these sacramental foods.  Therefore, would not those who disallow our covenant children from the Table be included in those who do not rightly discern the body?