Scripture plainly teaches that a man ought to examine himself and so eat of this bread and drink of this cup (1 Corinthians 11:28). On the basis of such a text, some people object to the practice of covenant children communing with the Lord and the saints at the Lord’s Table. Can these little ones truly examine themselves? My short answer to that question is, “Why, yes, they can . . . and as John the Baptist, they can even be filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb (Luke 1:15). While we are on this subject, we really should consider the context of that command to examine oneself. That context involved people grabbing their own bread while others went hungry (1 Corinthians 11:21). It involved people despising the church of God (1 Corinthians 11:22), causing divisions (1 Corinthians 11:18), and not discerning the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:29).
 
Interestingly, this is the very error the disciples fell into when they prohibited children from coming to Christ. Jesus said, “Forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). If the disciples had discerned that the little ones were of the kingdom of heaven, then they would not have been in need of the rebuke. In prohibiting the children to come to the Lord, what were they doing? They were causing divisions. They were not discerning the body of Christ.
 
Imagine this turn of events, when the man who would prohibit children coming to the Lord’s Table discovers that the Lord Himself is discerning the body, the children also are discerning the body. But he himself has failed to discern the body. In a great attempt to examine the least of these. He has forgotten to examine himself.
 
So examine yourself, indeed. For that is the command, and it goes for the least of us to the greatest.