Those who are genuine Christians in a Church fellowship tend to find each other out. So do those who aren’t. Mr. By-end, now that Christian and Hopeful are keeping their distance, falls in with Mr. Hold-the-world, Mr. Money-love and Mr. Save-all. They struggle to understand why Christian and Hopeful can’t simply accept them and simply be glad they are on the Path at all. What gives them the right to be so judgemental, just because their ‘Christianity’ isn’t just the same. By-end laments: ‘the men before us are so rigid, and love so much their own opinions … that let a man be never so godly, yet if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite out of their company’. Thus they congratulate themselves on having a tolerance and open-mindedness that Christian and Hopeful clearly lack!

In one sense the problem with these gentlemen is not what they accept, but what they won’t reject. They won’t reject sin, the world or the devil. They think they can hold to the Way whilst not having to sacrifice, surrender or suffer. Their religion is comfortable, accommodating, inoffensive, easily slipped into the rest of their lives. It is very different from that of Jesus:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"
(Matthew 16:24–26)

No matter. By-ends and co. have long since justified their approach to themselves, and to anyone else who will listen. But their ‘allegiance’ to Christ is simply a kind of selfishness, serving their personal advantage and advancement. Going to Church is a good thing (or at least, not a bad thing) to do, and so long as religion serves their purpose, they will gladly walk His way, after a sort. ‘Jesus’ is domesticated, modified, brought to heel, so that it is comfortable, respectable and compatible with worldly gain and profit (it is, in fact, a ‘different Jesus’ they follow, II Cor.11:4). Yet so impressed are they with their approach to Christ and the Church that they can hardly wait to challenge Christian and Hopeful in their narrow-mindedness and extremism.

But Christian and Hopeful do something none of the others have done in this conversation. They turn to Scripture, showing that using Jesus for personal profit or gain is a sure road only to condemnation. From Genesis to Acts, those who have sought to use Christ and the Church for their own ends have faced only judgement and destruction. ‘The man who will take up religion for the world, will throw away religion for the world’. Their ‘faith’ is but a cover for greed and self-centredness. Christ will not be mocked… or used. All is to be brought to the service of Him and His cause. He will not be recruited to further our petty kingdoms and ambitions.

By-ends and his friends are stunned by Christian's response. They had sought to silence Christian and Hopeful with their argument, but in the end, it is they who are speechless. Christian warns that they will face a far greater rebuke in the coming judgement. They are ‘heathenish, hypocritical and devilish; and your reward will be according to your works’.

Christian and Hopeful stride ahead, whilst the other company stagger and fall behind. In the end the difference between true and false faith becomes apparent, and though they may sit in the same congregation, the gulf between them is eternal. For when the ‘Jesus’ we are following is a means to an end, it isn’t Jesus we are following.

Questions to ponder:

When have you seen people try and ‘use’ Christ and the Church for their own (worldly) benefit? How did the Church handle that? What did you think of it at the time? What do you think of it now?

Do you think Bunyan is being too judgemental in this section? Shouldn’t we welcome everyone at Church, irrespective of why they are there?